Should I insulate my liner?

[EbS-P]

Agreed. I have the Auber AW-TMB-Deluxe wifi monitor which sent the alarm to my phone at 1am as the temps crossed 1650. Of course I touched the stove controls trying to stop it which only got it going more and eventually topped out at 1740 with the pipe glowing red. Lesson now learned from woodsplitter67, don't touch it. That black section in the pic is a section of black pipe loosely wrapped around so you don't see the stainless pipe coming down.

My old stove, high is high, low is low, off is off. With the Encore, low can go ballistic and there is no off. That's why I don't trust it.

That pic is scary as 💩. Did you send a camera through the liner after?

 

[arnermd]

Agreed. I have the Auber AW-TMB-Deluxe wifi monitor which sent the alarm to my phone at 1am as the temps crossed 1650. Of course I touched the stove controls trying to stop it which only got it going more and eventually topped out at 1740 with the pipe glowing red. Lesson now learned from woodsplitter67, don't touch it. That black section in the pic is a section of black pipe loosely wrapped around so you don't see the stainless pipe coming down.

My old stove, high is high, low is low, off is off. With the Encore, low can go ballistic and there is no off. That's why I don't trust it

I may have said this before on the other thread.... When the cat goes ballistic and nothing else seems to work, I have a flat plate and a magnet to completely shut off the secondary air inlet. It will eventually bring the cat temps down, but sometimes it takes 20 - 30 min.

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

I use a 6 inch corrugated flex liner up a masonry chimney. Its about 18-20ft. Burn 4 cords a winter as my primary heat. This will be winter number 4 with the stove. Encore 2040 Cat-C

I clean once mid season and once at the end. I get about 2 pints in the stove when done.

 

[begreen]

I use a 6 inch corrugated flex liner up a masonry chimney. Its about 18-20ft. Burn 4 cords a winter as my primary heat. This will be winter number 4 with the stove. Encore 2040 Cat-C

I clean once mid season and once at the end. I get about 2 pints in the stove when done.

That's better. Is this an interior or exterior wall chimey? Is the liner insulated?

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

Not insulated, exterior chimney.

 

[EbS-P]

I use a 6 inch corrugated flex liner up a masonry chimney. Its about 18-20ft. Burn 4 cords a winter as my primary heat. This will be winter number 4 with the stove. Encore 2040 Cat-C

I clean once mid season and once at the end. I get about 2 pints in the stove when done.

Proof it can burn clean! And safe

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

Proof it can burn clean! And safe

I'd show you a pic of my oil bill...but I don't have one

 

[arnermd]

I use a 6 inch corrugated flex liner up a masonry chimney. Its about 18-20ft. Burn 4 cords a winter as my primary heat. This will be winter number 4 with the stove. Encore 2040 Cat-C

I clean once mid season and once at the end. I get about 2 pints in the stove when done.

John, that's really interesting. The one obvious difference from my setup is 6" liner vs 8" liner. Your exhaust velocity is ~75% faster than mine at 8", might explain things.

Do you ever have any draft issues on warm days? Have you ever measured the draft?

Oil bill here is 200 gal / year, just for hot water. Working on getting rid of that too.....

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

Never measured draft. But you definitely notice a difference when its warmer out.

I also have no 90s. The pipe goes straight up out the back of the stove

 

[EbS-P]

Working on getting rid of that too.....

I love my heatpump water heater.

 

[arnermd]

I love my heatpump water heater.

I have been considering one for a while now. Concerns I have, maybe you can comment?

• I would need to install a condensate pump as the unit would be in the basement below my septic outlet. Can be done but just another thing that will break.....
• It will make my basement colder in the winter. As it is now my basement gets down to 45-50 F in the winter which will reduce the effectiveness of the heat pump. I also like to work down there so I may need some temporary heating..... (fire up the oil burner....lol)

Have you compared the electric cost vs oil? Do you use oil or nat gas down there? My guess is your basement (if you have one) does not get that cold in Dixie....

 

[EbS-P]

Yes if you don’t have a drain you need a pump. We have a macerating toilet pump.

Yes it will make you basement cooler. The amount depends on how much hot water you use. We heat our basement as its living space. The room where the water heater is has a mechanical space. It’s a small bedroom but the kids keep the door open. I have it ducted to intake near the ceiling and exhaust blowing down to the floor. In hybrid mode it will kick on the electric elements. This never happens in the summer as the intel temps are high. It happens in the winter quite a bit. It’s an 80 gallon unit and we are a family of 7.

Basement has 17’ glass garage door. It can easily hit 55 if we don’t heat it.

We had resistive electric before. Cost is about 30% less. Now we have solar.

If I had oil and my tank was over 15 years old I would be ditching oil completely and removing the tank. If it’s newer I’d probably keep it as backup.

It is easily the fastest ROI for any energy efficiency improvement you can make. I don’t know that the tax credit situation is now.

 

[arnermd]

Yes if you don’t have a drain you need a pump. We have a macerating toilet pump.

Yes it will make you basement cooler. The amount depends on how much hot water you use. We heat our basement as its living space. The room where the water heater is has a mechanical space. It’s a small bedroom but the kids keep the door open. I have it ducted to intake near the ceiling and exhaust blowing down to the floor. In hybrid mode it will kick on the electric elements. This never happens in the summer as the intel temps are high. It happens in the winter quite a bit. It’s an 80 gallon unit and we are a family of 7.

Basement has 17’ glass garage door. It can easily hit 55 if we don’t heat it.

We had resistive electric before. Cost is about 30% less. Now we have solar.

If I had oil and my tank was over 15 years old I would be ditching oil completely and removing the tank. If it’s newer I’d probably keep it as backup.

It is easily the fastest ROI for any energy efficiency improvement you can make. I don’t know that the tax credit situation is now.

Family of 7.... God bless. We had 2 and that was enough.

Thanks for the info, very useful. I have been wondering if I go solar and the system is sized to provide 100% is it just easier to go with electric resistive.... Cheaper initial cost, easier to install, warms the basement..

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Do you get a gallon or two of creosote out? How many chimney fires have you had?

Your system may be better and the last statement may be false for you. Based on the facts disclosed I think another chimney fire is very likely. Best predictor of the future is the past.

The way I read it was, it's a matter of time for any VC stove to have a chimney fire. If that's what your saying I disagree with that. Completely

 

[EbS-P]

Family of 7.... God bless. We had 2 and that was enough.

Thanks for the info, very useful. I have been wondering if I go solar and the system is sized to provide 100% is it just easier to go with electric resistive.... Cheaper initial cost, easier to install, warms the basement..

Well… I haven’t done the math to see if more solar is cheaper than HPWH. It probably all depends on how your net metering works. We work on a monthly basis. I get paid for excess sent to the grid each billing cycle. At a 10kw array making about 12Mwh a year with an EV driving a lot I use more than I produce a year. 10kw was as big as I could get permitted by utility for.

So the question is how soon do you do solar? With the federal tax credits ending soon my guess is you’re looking at 3 years out of every. So what’s the ROI on based on oil and electricity prices. I think I was about 4 years to break even.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Never measured draft. But you definitely notice a difference when its warmer out.

I also have no 90s. The pipe goes straight up out the back of the stove

Straight up out the back is the way to go