Newbie Here!

[longislandcamper]

We have a traditional open hearth fireplace in our home that we've used a handful of times in our 2.5 years living here. Last year we had a local company come and measure for a wood insert and we finally pulled the trigger this week. Should be installed in about 7 weeks. We went with the Medium Flush Wood and plan on running the fire as much as possible.

Here's a little diagram I drew. 1,2 and 3 are bedrooms and the larger living room all have 8' ceilings. These rooms all have standard fiberglass insulation in the attic but they also have a nice layer of blown in insulation on top of that. These rooms always stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer due to the better insulation.

The fireplace is in the living room where the star is. That living room and the kitchen each have vaulted ceilings. The kitchen goes to about 12' and the LR with the fireplace goes to about 15'. House is roughly 1,400 square feet.

Each room except for the kitchen has a ceiling fan and we have hot water baseboard heating throughout the house. Naturally the fireplace room and the kitchen would get the most benefit from the fireplace and I'm sure even the other living room would get some benefit as well. The entrance between fireplace room and kitchen is about 4x7 and then there is a 3x3' opening on either side of the entrance that align with the top of the entrance so there's a pretty big opening between those rooms.

Is there any good way to get some of the fireplace heat to the bedroom areas? I saw in wall fans that will simply transfer the air from one room to the next kind of like the fan in the back of your computer.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The heat isn't going to move there on it's own. If you have forced air heat you can try to run the fan to circulate the air in your house.

Itherwise, you may have a bit of luck trying to get a convection loop by blowing cold air back toward the fire.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

We have a traditional open hearth fireplace in our home that we've used a handful of times in our 2.5 years living here. Last year we had a local company come and measure for a wood insert and we finally pulled the trigger this week. Should be installed in about 7 weeks. We went with the Medium Flush Wood and plan on running the fire as much as possible.

Here's a little diagram I drew. 1,2 and 3 are bedrooms and the larger living room all have 8' ceilings. These rooms all have standard fiberglass insulation in the attic but they also have a nice layer of blown in insulation on top of that. These rooms always stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer due to the better insulation.

The fireplace is in the living room where the star is. That living room and the kitchen each have vaulted ceilings. The kitchen goes to about 12' and the LR with the fireplace goes to about 15'. House is roughly 1,400 square feet.


View attachment 285981

Each room except for the kitchen has a ceiling fan and we have hot water baseboard heating throughout the house. Naturally the fireplace room and the kitchen would get the most benefit from the fireplace and I'm sure even the other living room would get some benefit as well. The entrance between fireplace room and kitchen is about 4x7 and then there is a 3x3' opening on either side of the entrance that align with the top of the entrance so there's a pretty big opening between those rooms.

Is there any good way to get some of the fireplace heat to the bedroom areas? I saw in wall fans that will simply transfer the air from one room to the next kind of like the fan in the back of your computer.

The big question is do you actually have seasoned wood to run in the wood stove and do you have enough to last half the season. Did you check the wood with a moisture meter, is a freshly split face measuring less then 20%mc. If your wood is subpar you need to know that now and if it is you need to grab compressed logs
By the looks of the diagram the stove room is small. Id make an opening into the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. your going to need to either make a door opening or a large ceiling vent to allow the heat to transfer to the hallway..

 

[EatenByLimestone]

As its on the centerline of the house, that wall might be a bearing wall. Check before making a doorway, be careful, yadda yadda, etc, etc.

 

[MMH]

If you have central air I’d try the fan, if not I’ll second woodsplitter here, if it’s not load bearing I’d strongly consider putting an arch way in, or at least a door; if it is load bearing you might be able to get away with a small window/vent hole in it, otherwise your going to have a pretty hard time moving that air. Also as mentioned think about your wood situation now, if you don’t have seasoned wood start now and think about compressed logs for this winter.

 

[longislandcamper]

Thanks everyone. We had two large oaks taken down two years ago and then I finally got to splitting and stacking them last year. I currently have about 1.5 cord split and stacked and am waiting on my new splitter to do the rest. I reckon what I still have to split is about twice as much as I already have stacked and split. I may not even touch that wood yet because I may already have enough split to last the season. We'll see.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Thanks everyone. We had two large oaks taken down two years ago and then I finally got to splitting and stacking them last year. I currently have about 1.5 cord split and stacked and am waiting on my new splitter to do the rest. I reckon what I still have to split is about twice as much as I already have stacked and split. I may not even touch that wood yet because I may already have enough split to last the season. We'll see.

keep splitting..your wood will rot if left unsplit.. it cant sit in rounds or log length if it dose.. it goes punky

 

[longislandcamper]

I’m really glad I purchase anything to help move the warm air around. Here’s a shot of the fireplace room. It has vaulted ceilings and the room next to it is a long kitchen with vaulted ceilings. Naturally, the warm air dumps into the kitchen through the walkway into the rooms and the large square cutout.

Then you have the square cutout closest to me in the picture. The warm air dumps out of that cutout and flows along the ceiling behind me. If I turn to the left a little then you have the hallway which leads to 3 bedrooms and a bath. The room I’m standing in has a similar drop down from the ceiling so it’s harder for the warm air to get in there.

This fireplace is literally heating the entire house. Our thermostat is in the hall leading to the bedrooms and it’s reading 4-5 degrees warmer then it would normally be if we were just using the household heat. We even have a baby monitor camera near a window in one of the bedrooms and it usually read about 64 degrees since it was near the window. I’m even that is now reading 69 degrees.

Fireplace has been running for almost 2.5 straight days with outdoor temps ranging from about 20-35 degrees. Our household heat , set to 68, has only been on about 2.5 hours total in the 2.5 days we’ve been running this fireplace.

 

[stoveliker]

Just to be clear this is not a fireplace but an insert. Different thing. (And way different heating efficiency.)