New to the flames

[kelli]

I am researching putting in a WBS in the corner of my home. This would be on the main floor, above my basement. It would be used as a primary heat source. I have a couple questions....
My home is 1700 square feet, with the main floor opening up to the bedrooms upstairs. Could I get away with a WBS that heats up to 1500?
Also, I was talking with a home depot guy, who told me I could just use their installation kit and not have to put the piping all the way up the side of my home. True?
The room it would be in the ceiling is 8ft.
Outside to the top of the gutter is about 14ft. Suggestions?
Thanks so so much for the advice ahead of time!

 

[katwillny]

A couple of things to keep in mind Kelli... first, layout of the area you are looking to heat has alot to do with it. In my case, i have a split level type home and have my stove in the first floor. The size and efficiency of the stove you purchase also has a lot to do with it. I am able to comfortably warm up about 70 percent of my 2200sq feet house with that one stove as heat rises. I have a second stove, a pellet one, on the second floor opposite side of where the wood one is. As far as not having to go up above your roof, I would strongly reccomend you check with your municipality and see what code mandates. I see that you are in Dutchess County, I am in Beacon and they require that the piping is two feet above my roof. I know they recently passed new rules on that here but thats for new installations, which doenst affect me. Although very helpfull, they guys at HD arent always the most knowledgeable when it comes to hearth, especially wood stoves and local rules, at least from what i have personally experienced. Just a thought, no disrespect to HD personnel.

 

[madrone]

put the stove on the north side or wherever cold winter prevailing winds come from.smaller to me is better than bigger stove considering thatcleaning ss fluepipe with a wire brush aint good

what?

 

[greythorn3]

i thought you are supposed to put the stove on the south side of a house?

 

[begreen]

Greetings Kelli. Good that you are putting the stove where the heat is needed, on the main floor. Ideally, the stove would be placed as centrally as possible, but that isn't always the way floorplans work out. Could you post a drawing or sketch of the floorplan?

As for the flue, I am not following the options here, nor the Home Depot advice. What do you want to do - run the pipe on the outside of the house or run it straight up the interior? As always, pictures are worth a thousand words.

 

[paulie]

you put the stove on the side of prevailing winds. Also I would go bigger. you can always build a small fire in a big box...I have a heritge rated at 1800ft, and my home is 1400.works great! If it says you can heat 1500 ft keep in mind that is at a full maxium burn rate. You don't need to burn to the max all the time. You will burn at max enough to keep her clean, and thats fine. I would go just another size larger

 

[kelli]

I am now looking at the Osburn 1800. It seems to cover the sq ft. Thanks for the advice. I am looking to run it up the outside of my home. Basically in the corner of an 8ft room. The total piping would be about 14ft including the 2ft about the pitch. I definitely have to check with the town codes. Thoughts on the Osburn?

 

[RustyShackleford]

Seems like siting the stove according to chimney draft is letting the tail wag the dog.
Put the stove where you want it and then figure out a chimney that works. Within
reason, I mean - you can't put the stove in a place where running the chimney is
really hard.

 

[kelli]

So I am finding that the elbows to go around my gutters are going to be QUITE expensive. If I could drill straight through the overhang, how many inches does it have to come out to be in code?

 

[wendell]

I was afraid that is what you were thinking about doing and even if wasn't expensive, you do NOT want to go around your gutters. It will kill your draft.

You have to be 2 feet higher than the height of your roof 10 feet away.

 

[kelli]

I was afraid that is what you were thinking about doing and even if wasn't expensive, you do NOT want to go around your gutters. It will kill your draft.

You have to be 2 feet higher than the height of your roof 10 feet away.

So technically I can get it to go through the gutters?

 

[wendell]

No, you want to go straight up the side of the house and straight up through the roof.

 

[kelli]

But I have an overhang.. wouldn't that require elbows?

 

[begreen]

Can you post some pictures? That will really help.

If not, how deep is the overhang (soffit)? Sometimes this can be notched and boxed so that the flue continues straight up, through the overhang and if necessary, behind the gutter.

Osburn (SBI) makes some decent stoves that can offer good value. I'm not a big fan of the wrap around ceramic glass. Seems like the side panes might get dirty easily, but have never run one, so that's just an observation.

 

[Pavesa]

Hi

this is an interesting link about chimneys

(broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/chimneys/chimneys.htm)

Andrew

 

[kelli]

Thanks for the link.
After talking with an installer, who is coming out Wed. to check things out, he thinks we can go right through thr soffit. The soffit is about a foot before it gets to the gutter.

What are your thoughts on the Napoleon 1400P, the Jotul 400, and an Enerzone?

 

[DeePee]

Osburn (SBI) makes some decent stoves that can offer good value. I'm not a big fan of the wrap around ceramic glass. Seems like the side panes might get dirty easily, but have never run one, so that's just an observation.

Osburns are excellent bang-for-the-buck stoves/insert. Surprisingly the side glass remains clean if burning properly. The bottom rear corners of the side panes discolour more than any other area. I've not replaced mine yet, but I think installing a new gasket on the bay-shaped door is going to be a treat. Aesthetically, in my opinion, they are the least fancy yet best looking stoves.

 

[greythorn3]

are the osborn inserts ZC fireplace compatable?

 

[Ratman]

I am researching putting in a WBS in the corner of my home. This would be on the main floor, above my basement. It would be used as a primary heat source. I have a couple questions....
My home is 1700 square feet, with the main floor opening up to the bedrooms upstairs. Could I get away with a WBS that heats up to 1500?
Also, I was talking with a home depot guy, who told me I could just use their installation kit and not have to put the piping all the way up the side of my home. True?
The room it would be in the ceiling is 8ft.
Outside to the top of the gutter is about 14ft. Suggestions?
Thanks so so much for the advice ahead of time!

Hi Kelli,

First off, welcome aboard.
After reading the entire thread I'm convinced it is the most confusing I've read to date.
Your stove location question was clear yet your question; “The room it would be in the ceiling is 8ft. Outside to the top of the gutter is about 14ft. Suggestions?” without more detail or as the guys mentioned, pictures, is real tough to answer.
On the other hand some of the answers were bizarre or in a foreign language.

Stove location:
Put your stove where you want to in your house. As our Moderator stated towards the center of the main floor is optimum but what really counts is that you are going to have to live with this decision and in my opinion that overrides everything except safety or an impractical chimney location.

Stove size: I would not want to pay for a new stove and then realize it is just a little smaller than you need. I would supply some pictures or a diagram of your house and the folks here can give you several suggestions on stoves to heat your space.

The very experienced top notch members of this forum, especially the Moderators have helped me with my decisions and I’m positive you will receive some excellent informative answers if you provide them as much information as possible.

 

[firefighterjake]

I am researching putting in a WBS in the corner of my home. This would be on the main floor, above my basement. It would be used as a primary heat source. I have a couple questions....
My home is 1700 square feet, with the main floor opening up to the bedrooms upstairs. Could I get away with a WBS that heats up to 1500?
Also, I was talking with a home depot guy, who told me I could just use their installation kit and not have to put the piping all the way up the side of my home. True?
The room it would be in the ceiling is 8ft.
Outside to the top of the gutter is about 14ft. Suggestions?
Thanks so so much for the advice ahead of time!

Personally I would look at stoves that are at least rated for the space requirements you are looking for . . . bearing in mind that the burn times and square footage heating specs are based on lab tests -- not tests done on actual homes which may have more or less insulation, may have more severe winter weather and winds, etc. Generally, I even encourage folks to figure out what they need for a stove and then go up another size . . . the belief being that it is easier to build a small fire in a large firebox when not as much heat is needed, but much harder to build a larger fire in a small firebox when more heat is needed . . . plus there is less of a danger of overfiring the stove and having premature wear from running it hot and hard for an extended period of time.

As for the installation kit . . . pictures will help . . . but in general the chimney needs to be pretty tall -- generally it will go either through the home's roof or up and out the side of the house and extend beyond the roof line . . . chimney length is a very imporant part of running a woodstove since it is more than just a place for the smoke to leave the stove . . . it is the "engine" of the stove as it provides the crucially needed draft to get the fire going and running strong.

As mentioned . . . pictures of the proposed place of install and roof line would help.