Through wall heat loss/waste VS through ceiling

[Poopers]

I live in an old mobile home that came with a factory fireplace. I plan on removing it and installing a wood stove for efficiency reasons. There is a water leak coming in through the current chimney which has me thinking maybe I should do a thru- wall installation for the wood stove and seal up the current hole in the roof. My roof is curved/domed so I think waterproofing it and getting flashing to sit flush might be a bit harder than simply patching the hole.

My question is this: I want to retain as much heat as possible, is going through the wall going to make a noticeable loss in heat as opposed to having stove pipe from the stove to the ceiling?

I know techinically more heat will be wasted but is it enough to really feel?

Thanks guys

 

[firefighterjake]

Personal opinion . . . with the old pre-EPA stoves you would be losing some . . . maybe even quite a bit . . . of heat in the chimney/stove pipe. With the EPA stoves with secondary burns or cats the majority of the heat gain is in the stove and not stove pipe. Sure there is some heat gain from a chimney inside the home, but honestly in my own case I have a home with an exterior chimney here in Maine and I can pretty much heat my entire home all winter long and be quite warm.

 

[webby3650]

I agree that it will be a little difficult to properly flash the chimney on that roof. But the issue you are going to have with a through the wall installation is going to be your limited height. Most stoves need to have a flue with 12-15', that's very hard to do with a MH. Every bend that the flue has makes it harder to draw, straight up would be much better for the draft.

You could ask a commercial roofing contractor for advice. They typically have experience with flat roofs of all kinds.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You would not notice any difference in the amount of heat. After all, the ceiling height in that MH is not very high.

As webby3650 stated, your biggest challenge will be getting enough height. But depending upon the stove, sometimes you can get away with less but most times not. Also, if you go through the wall, you have to have a minimum of 1/4" rise per foot of horizontal. We are 1/2" or more here and it does just fine.

You also have to install an OAK for this installation else it won't meet code. Besides, you really need the extra air rather than drawing air from inside the home. But the OAK should not be difficult to install.