Hi all.
I thought I would start a thread to pass on my thoughts and experience for my fireplace insert decision, install, and burning experiences for the new home my wife and I are building.
Background:
I'll post follow up info as the winter progresses and I get a chance to do some real burning as well as construction photos as we get to the stone and concrete work.
I thought I would start a thread to pass on my thoughts and experience for my fireplace insert decision, install, and burning experiences for the new home my wife and I are building.
Background:
- My wife and I are building (what we hope to be) our retirement home on some property in WA state (east slopes of the Cascades at ~2200 ft, Dec and Jan typically have lows in singe digits, but a few weeks will get to low -teens at night), averages 3' of snow on the ground from Dec thru March). Summers also get to upper 90's for a few weeks in Aug. To say I'm concerned with good insulation and tight home construction would be an understatement.
- A friend drew up the plans (he's an architect) and spec'd a back-to-back, full masonry rumford fireplace (one fireplace in the living room, one on the front porch). He designed and help build the same thing in a home down the street so we had the ability to see it working in action.
- My wife loved the look and design (and I agree), but I was cringing at the amount of heat that would go up that chimney (and through the masonry). The amazing warmth a Rumford will throw into a room once the fire is going is impressive (you have to experience it to believe it), but it's not very practical in any other respect.
- After much research and "discussion", we ended up with a hybrid approach. The fireplace will look like a single unit, but will actually be a masonry Rumford on the front porch with a Travis 42 Apex inserted into a wooden fireplace chase covered with real stone veneer on the inside. The two are separated by a fully insulated 6" wall. The masonry Rumford on the outside transitions to a wooden chase with stone veneer filled with class A insulated stove pipe just above the mantel and the Apex stove pipe transitions through the wall into that same chase. And yes, if you are wondering, we had it all drawn up, engineered and approved by the building department before we got started.
- As you can imagine, this turned our "fireplace" budget into an area of considerable focus. In the end, it's a significant investment that is as much about looks as it is about heat.
- As you can imagine, there were a lot of factors to consider before we decided on the 42 Apex. The primary concerns were:
- Efficiency and EPA certification. We get a lot of burn bans in the winter and wanted to maximize our burning capabilities. The Apex is now approved for 2020 emissions. Hurray.
- Aesthetics. My wife really wanted the look of a fireplace (rather than a wood stove). This was a big topic for us and it took a while to find a compromise. The Apex has a large glass area for very nice fire viewing (~24"x13"), we both like the square look with the "Metropolitan" grill (see photo attached), and I liked the single door design (for better sealing). The handle design is unique and some probably don't like it, but I think it's very nice and it's low profile keeps it out of the way. It does get hot though.
- Size. It was the right size for us. 3.5 cu ft firebox taking 24" logs seems big enough to load up, but not so huge that we can't build smaller fires on occasion. This is not our primary heater, but it could certainly heat the home with some help from the ceiling fan.
- Unlike some inserts, it does not require power to burn fire. It's hard for me to believe that is a requirement of some devices.
- I like the built in fan/blower (quiet, multi-speed, hidden) and controller. It is nice it shows you the current temp at the cat.
- The external air intake system allowed us to hook up 2 vents that go straight down. I wanted as much air as I could get and the rep I contacted confirmed we can run 2 vents instead of just one. We built a platform for the stove to sit on and ran vents to both of the bottom air duct hook ups. This allowed me to run the ducts down and out the rim joist and into a mostly enclosed foundation area under the outside fireplace away from anything that could catch on fire from an extreme backdraft event but still have lots of fresh air for the intake.
- The 7" pipe is certainly more expensive than 6" (but less than 8" or 10" for some systems we looked at). This was a consideration since we have something like 25' of stove pipe (it's a 2 story house).
- The outside Rumford fireplace is mostly complete. We have not had a fire in it yet, but that will happen a few times this winter I am sure. The mason we found did an AMAZING job with the stone veneer (real stone cut about 1.5" thick, including special cut corner stones). Photos attached.
- We got the Apex installed and did a couple of test fires before summer hit this year. I did a sort of lame video that I think you can view here:
- Overall, I am very impressed with the heat it puts out (especially with the blower going). I was just burning some scrap 2x material (fir) for an hour or so. Not the best test, but it did allow it to get up to temp and let me experiment with the cat and damper settings. There were times the heat coming out of the top was so hot it was difficult to hold your hand in front of it.
- Being able to see the cat temperature is really nice. I don't know how accurate it is, but it does have a nice psychological "oo's and aaahh's" factor.
- The air intake seems less effective than I had hoped. Even with 2 vents hooked up, it seems like the fire is starved for air until the chimney comes up to temp. We have a very tall and fairly straight stove pipe so draw should not be a problem. We do have a couple of angles in the pipe to get it to transition through the wall, so that might be part of the problem. The air intakes are short (less than 5'). I did an experiment and put a little fan on one of air intake vents just to see what happens. It definitely helped, but most of the air just got pushed out the other vent rather than into the stove. Since my house will be fairly tight, I plan to continue to experiment with ideas, but it's quite possible I'll be stuck cracking the fireplace door and the window next to it while the fire gets started. We'll see what happens this winter when it's really cold out and the house is fully buttoned up.
- The stone veneer, mantel, and hearth for the inside Apex is not complete yet. The chase is done and mostly ready for stone. We'll probably not work on those until the spring ('19). We have more critical projects that need to go first. Note: since the Apex does not allow combustible mantels, we are going with poured-in-place concrete for the hearth and mantel (outside fireplace will also have a concrete hearth, but a log mantel). We installed some 2x2 steel bars (with some holes for rebar later) so they are self supporting and won't need any knee braces, etc. Photo attached.
I'll post follow up info as the winter progresses and I get a chance to do some real burning as well as construction photos as we get to the stone and concrete work.
.
