New pellet stove installation questions

[StarsAndStripes]

Hello everyone,

I’m a new member to the forum and hoping for some advice on a pellet stove installation. For background, I have an approximately 1200 square foot ranch that I am planning on installing a US stove in the main level. My primary heat is from a wood stove in the basement, but I’m hoping the pellet stove will be able to at least act as a space heater in the main living area.

My biggest question is on the location of the stove. It would be a much easier installation to install the stove where circled, but I’m looking for input on how well the air moves from the stove. My main concern with this location is there is a wall about 12 feet directly in front of this spot which you can see on the far right of the picture, and I’m concerned the heat won’t be able to travel to the nearby rooms well. I could also install it in the star location in the corner, which I think would push the heat right into the living room. However, there’s a window within a few feet, and I would need more fittings for the exhaust.

My other big question is venting. I’ve seen horizontal vents, vertical inside and outside the house, and whether or not a cleanout tee is required. I would like to have a few feet of vertical with a cleanout tee inside for aesthetics and ease of cleaning, is this a typical installation? Can you also have the cleanout straight off the stove so the stove can be closer to the wall?

I appreciate anyone’s input and advice. Thank you!

 

[whit]

Hello everyone,
My biggest question is on the location of the stove. It would be a much easier installation to install the stove where circled, but I’m looking for input on how well the air moves from the stove. My main concern with this location is there is a wall about 12 feet directly in front of this spot which you can see on the far right of the picture, and I’m concerned the heat won’t be able to travel to the nearby rooms well. I could also install it in the star location in the corner, which I think would push the heat right into the living room. However, there’s a window within a few feet, and I would need more fittings for the exhaust.

You definitely don't want it so close to a window as in the corner, unless you're putting the exhaust exit far enough away from it. Unlike the wood stove in your basement (I've got one there too), the pellet stove primarily outputs heat as blown hot air, not as radiant heat. So the room the air's blowing into will heat fairly evenly. Then the air will rise. As an example, my pellet stove is in a far corner of the first floor, in a room with a stairs up. The room with the stove is currently 70 degrees (set by the thermostat there). The rest of the 2,200 sq. ft. house, on a dreary day in the mid-30s and no other heat on, is at about 63 degrees, except for the room right above the stove, which is somewhere in between. The only thing circulating the air is the fan in the stove. If I were heating from the basement with the woodstove there, I would have to get the basement to 80 degrees or so to similarly heat the upper floors -- and that with a not-to-code bathroom-type fan over that stove to push air through a vent to the first-floor living room. On colder days I definitely need other heat for the other end of the first floor, but the pellet stove's rising hot air largely takes care of the second floor still.

Can't speak to ideal exhaust design. Mine's straight out the wall, not vertical at all. I've got a relay rigged to the thermostat to have the stove coast to a halt on a small UPS when the power goes out, so as not to get smoke in the house then. A vertical rise would have been the simpler solution. But at least my horizontal pipe gets it several feet out from the wall. Pipes too close to a wall will blacken it.

 

[Miss Bailey]

The circle seems like a really good spot. Have you checked out what the local ordinances are for pellet stove installs. It's different everywhere, with restrictions, like how far from a functioning window and/or the height requirement for the exhaust from the ground etc..

What BTU output does the stove produce? I just replaced my old Whitfield, 25 yrs of use, with a CmfortBilt HP22. 50,000 BTU output.

Only had it on the lowest setting so far cuz it hasn't been really that cold yet. Low 30s and with it in manual mode on the lowest setting I get up in the morning and it's 72 or so throughout the house. Both floor levels!

 

[bogieb]

Is there a reason that you can't angle the stove so it is aimed more toward the living room? Maybe it would look a little weird, but it would allow for your favored placement.

In my experience (which may or may not be typical), when I had a stove angled toward the far corner of my living room the heat was fairly stuck in that room. Sure, it eventually moved to other rooms but I had to use fans and the LR was hot while the other rooms were cool. When I was able to change to another configuration that allowed me to aim the stove toward the other rooms, I was able to get rid of all fans.

I have a cleanout Tee directly off the connector to the stove. Works fine.

 

[StarsAndStripes]

I appreciate everyone’s input. I have not looked into local codes yet, I’ve just strictly read the requirements from the owners manual, but I plan to get the town involved right before the installation.

It sounds like the general consensus is the corner might be too close to a window. I also have ceiling fans in a couple of the other rooms I would like the heat to spread to, can anyone vouch for how effective running them in reverse is to help pull in some of the heat?

 

[JRemington]

You can go out near a window, you just have to go vertical above the window with a cleanout T at the bottom. Corner installations normally move the heat better than a flat wall installation.

 

[zrock]

I would go corner as well... our local code is exhaust must be 3 ft from a opening... should not be hard in the corner. Go out the side wall or same wall as window and just extend up above window opening

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