New stove for an old couple

[John S]

We’ve enjoyed burning in the old ZC fireplace for the last few years but the price of propane just trends up and CSSing a couple of cords of wood is getting harder for this old man. So in the ongoing reno of our beautiful mobile home we decided this was the year to install a wood stove and stop wasting heat.

My end was getting the fireplace out and cleaning up the walls and ceiling and so on. The install itself was done by the stove shop. Very smooth and professional. About 15’ of pipe/chimney and the draft seems perfect. They also installed an OAK through the hearth to the crawl space.

We chose the Alderlea T4 because the living room is less than 250 sq ft and we were afraid of being blown out by too much heat. We looked at a whole bunch of stoves but the size and convective nature of the Alderlea seemed the right choice. So far we’ve had about a dozen fires and all have gone well. It was 34 this morning so I lit the stove around 6, have reloaded twice – temp in the living room is 77, adjacent kitchen/dining is 73, bath and laundry are 72. I did put in two through wall fans which have definitely helped.

The other big help was reading around a thousand posts on hearth.com. It’s been 30 or 40 years since we heated with wood and I was pretty nervous about operating a new EPA stove. I’m sure there’s plenty more to learn but so far, so good. Thank you all.

 

[vixster]

It looks great! Enjoy!

 

[firefighterjake]

Hard to tell with the pic . . . but no roof bracket for the chimney? It appears to be over 5 feet tall coming through the roof.

The actual woodstove install . . . especially the last pic . . . looks wicked sharp. In truth, I thought at first the final pic was something from a brochure.

 

[John S]

You're right it's 5' 3". They convinced me it wasn't a problem on our short 4 pitch roof and that the chimney support bracket would be enough. They did put snow guards above it. We'll see.

 

[John S]

Also, thanks for the compliment - there are so many really nice hearths and installations here that I almost didn't post. Given the old mobile home "architecture," we're going for a very plain look.

 

[NickDL]

It looks great.

 

[BrotherBart]

Nice stove, nice home and nice wood stacks. Enjoy!

 

[begreen]

Well done and a good plan from start to finish.

 

[Sprinter]

You're gonna love heating with a stove and that T4 seems like a good match. Nice job.

 

[littlalex]

Great photo essay by you...looks wonderful. Enjoy in health and warmth.

 

[blacktail]

Great looking setup.

 

[Woody Stover]

Sweet-lookin' setup. And I like to be able to stash enough wood inside that I don't have to go outside for a while if I don't feel like it.

 

[nvanhar]

Nice pics! Love the stove and your wood stacks are super tidy - really like your covers! Also, any chance you could post pics of your through wall fans? Thinking we need some of those in our cathedral living room to vent the heat to the upstairs more efficiently.

 

[John S]

Nice pics! Love the stove and your wood stacks are super tidy - really like your covers! Also, any chance you could post pics of your through wall fans? Thinking we need some of those in our cathedral living room to vent the heat to the upstairs more efficiently.

The living room is pretty central in this 74' long mobile home. Adjacent on one side is the kit/dine room. Unfortunately, there are cabinets on the dining side so we had to go with a fan high up, pretty much over the stove blowing into the kit/dine. Not ideal but it does over time raise the temp in the kitchen.



On the other side of the living room is a hall leading to the bath and laundry. Here we put a fan down low (through the bookcase) blowing into the living room. This really does set up a loop - warm air down the hall, through the bath and laundry and back into the living room.



At each end of the mobile home are bedrooms which we aren't too concerned with as we like blankets.

 

[Fsappo]

Id love to see a closer look at the flashing. Looks like a great installation.

 

[John S]

Id love to see a closer look at the flashing. Looks like a great installation.

The stove company had a lot of experience with both mobile homes and metal roofs which was part of why we chose them. I'm not sure of the brand of flashing but it's like this one - (broken link removed to http://www.icc-rsf.com/main.php?t=chem_produits&i=95&l=en)

 

[Laurent Cyr]

Nice install! I`m sure you`ll love the heat from this stove.

 

[Sprinter]

Nice pics! Love the stove and your wood stacks are super tidy - really like your covers! Also, any chance you could post pics of your through wall fans? Thinking we need some of those in our cathedral living room to vent the heat to the upstairs more efficiently.

I think those through-the-wall fans are great, if you can set up a loop like John S did with his.