New Woodburning Fireplace question...

[mtj53]

I have a question for you guys. I'm very early on here in my search for a new woodburning fireplace. I am thinking of possibly an insert, but quite honestly might consider removing my old fireplace and starting from scratch. I am after several things--for my wife, the ambiance of the fireplace itself, for me, I am really hoping to find one that will literally heat the entire house. Keeping that in mind, I do have a section of the house that is "away from" the main open area where the fireplace will be located. I'd put in an insert, but am worried I'll just be creating a whole new cold spot in the house. It makes sense to find one that works great, is efficient as possible, and be able to hook it up to the existing house ductwork. So far, the only woodburnring fireplace I have found that you can hook up directly to your ductwork is RSF Fireplaces. But I don't like that disclaimer that says they are EPA exempt, and only cerified by a private lab. I'm wondering if you can tell me what all top manufacturers do allow you to hook up to your central heating furnace ductwork? Any others? Home is approximately 2500 Sq Ft. if you'd have a specific model to suggest. Or does anyone have any past experiences with an RSF product they can share with me? I really appreciate it, Thanks!

 

[bgoodwithwood]

Hi mtj53 and welcome to the forum. Can you provide a bit more information about your floor plan layout? Do you have an open floor plan or lots of walls and hallways? I have an RSF Onyx and I like it a lot. Very heavy and very well constructed. Only drawback is that I would like a bit more of a overnight burn but do not have the guts to do any kind of modification to it. It is located in a small family room where the heat goes up the stairs to the bedrooms. House is about 2000 sq ft and the stove will heat most of the house except the far part of the kitchen. The RSF will struggle to keep up when it gets real cold and windy. . . . but all in all I cannot complain. I have been burning it for about 3 yrs now and it is pretty good on wood as well. I would highly recommend getting the ICC chimney that RSF suggests for the fireplace as well. Creates a great draft and when coupled with the vacu stack chimney cap you should not have a draft issue.

 

[mtj53]

Thanks for the reply bgoodwithwood. Some of the layout of my house is quite open, The fireplace is centrally located, and ahead of it and just off of it on the one side are a couple rooms, and ahead and up there is a bedroom and a loft area. I'll post a picture, and in the picture is pretty much all the rooms I just described that are in the "open area". That amounts to around 1500 Sq Ft. The part I am worried about if I do an insert, is behind what you can see in this photo is the rest of the house, it is two story, mostly closed off to what you can see, I believe it's 15 ft by about 35 ft long. The only space there is between the two area's on the top floor is one walk in door. If I'd go with an insert, I don't think much heat at all would find it's way into that area. If I could find a company that offered the option of hooking up their fireplace directly to my forced air heating system ductwork, I'm thinking that would be the best way to go? So far, the only company that I found that will let you do this is RSF. The dealer that handles RSF in my area said he is new to their systems, but he feels confident they are a great system. I was a little weary because the brochure mentioned they were "EPA exempt". I've seen posts that mentioned EPA approved is the only way to go. Plus being new to this I was wondering why other brochures I have looked at haven't mentioned being able to hook into existing ductwork? The search feature doesn't seem to work for me but I have seen a few posts also where folks were happy with the Onyx but I just haven't seen where anyone has hooked up with their existing ductwork. Between that and just wondering how happy folks were with their RSF stoves were my main concerns. I would probably be looking at installing the Opel model assuming I went with this company.
Mark

 

[mtj53]

Here is one more photo, I'm not sure how good this will show up, but the part I have circled, or basically the whole area you can see that is two story on the right side of the picture, that's the part that isn't as open as it needs to be. That's why I was thinking it would be nice to hook into the existing ductwork. Make any sense?
Mark

 

[21acrewoods]

Try Quadra-fire 7100.

 

[mtj53]

Thanks--I actually did stop and talk with the local dealer who sells the Quads because I had seen on here where a couple others had hooked theirs up direct to the current ductwork, but he said they don't do that. I didn't see any mention of it in their literature after I seen the posts on here, but I'll have to stop back and talk with him again to make sure that I didn't miss something. He did have a 7100 there out of the box, thats a monster of a fireplace!

 

[21acrewoods]

I am about half done with the install of my new 7100. I am running 1 seperate heat zone sold specifically for the Quad. It will utilize 6" b-vent pipe to get hot air to the end of my house that is furthest from the fp. I have a large return air duct for my current forced air system right above my fp, so I am hoping my furnace fan will use some of that warm air on a low setting and blow it around the house. I scratched the idea of tieing directly into my forced air system.

 

[mtj53]

Burning Chunk--keep in mind when I ask a foolish question I'm pretty new to all of this--but here goes: If you've got a furnace as big and capable as the 7100, and if it is ok to tie into the ductwork so you have even heating all around the house, why not do it? I know I'm missing something but not sure what. I think the 7100 salesman I talked with did say something about an optional heat zone, but the part of my home that is 'sperate" and not so open is both upstairs and downstairs, that's why I'm so interested in tying into existing ductwork.
Maybe another question I should be asking is are there any "cons" to tying into existing ductwork? Thanks!
Mark

 

[21acrewoods]

I have been reconsidering hooking into that return air duct that is right above my fp. I have been on another thread with a guy who seems to know a little bit more about this. I can try to get the thread for you if you want or search "insulating b-vent"

 

[mtj53]

21acrewoods--I'd sure appreciate it if you could get me to that thread. I'm not at all sure why, but I can't seem to use the "search" feature with my computer. Or even the advanced search-I keep getting error messages that say first I'll be redirected then it says "no search results found". I know I'm probably doing something wrong or my computer isn't set right or something. AOL is what I use and I get that quite a bit, but I know as much about computers as I do fireplaces! Thanks!

 

[21acrewoods]

Insulating heat zone ducts off of my quad 7100? is the search. sorry I gave you wrong info.

 

[madison]

Use the "search forums" on top of the hearth.com forum page, (not search the "internets" (as george w. bush calls it))

 

[madison]

Maybe this will help: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/search_results/fd8761938d263f8b84af235ed950506c/

 

[mtj53]

Thanks guys, I got the search figured out now, for whatever reason, if I type my search in the box and click search it just brings up an error message, same happens if I use the advanced search, however, when I click on "search the entire site" I can find anything I'm looking for. Wow, I could read literally for hundreds of hours, Thanks!