New stove and new house

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fgb5

Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 8, 2008
8
Vermont
Happy new year! Well here I am in my new house with a brand new stove. We had a huntington home build in vermont. It is a prefab home that came in four pieces. The house is very tight and the basement has foam insulation. We just installed a pacific energy alderlea. It is a great looking stove and we love the easy of operation (we burned coal in our last house). We had a few break in fires and then I lit a slightly larger fire. It took forever for the stove to get up to temp. However, the flue pipe (double walled)was arpund 800deg. The fire was roaring inside but the stove was warm to the touch. I turned down the air control and the stove seemed to respond a bit but still ate a full load of wood in about three hours with the air control turned all the way down. The pipe was about 650deg. And so was the stove with the aircontrol turned all the way down. Is this normal? I thought I would need an outside air kit since the house is so tight. Another thing is that the house temp was at 68 before I started the stove and after a full load three hours later with the temp at 30 degrees outside and inside the house temp is only 71! I figured that we would be roasted out of the house. My old vigilant coal burning wood lasted longer and also roasted us out. Any help would be great.
 
Update, I loaded more wood in the stove ontop of all the coals. The air control is turned down all the way and the logs are burning. The pipe temp is at 400 and the stove is just barely over 350. But both are on the rise. I feel like I should have way more control. We are at about 1500 ft. And the pipe is about 26' long with a 90 in the attic.
 
Welcome. Which model Alderlea is this?

You will need to turn down the air much sooner. Watch the fire. The best instrument is your eyes. Don't be a slave to the thermometer. If the fresh fire is burning strongly, start turning it down, regardless of flue temps, until the fire starts getting lazy. Then let it buildup in intensity again and turn it down again until the flames start getting lazy. Repeat if necessary until the air control is nearly or all the way closed.
 
90 in the attic?! Please explain, that is against code and could be a dangerous situation. If you can post a picture of the installation that would be helpful.
 
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