Wood stove pipe angle. enjoying the wood fire or not

[neclaw]

Hi!
I live in an apartment on the first floor of a brick/concrete built house poorly insulated. The house has 4 levels* in total: basement, ground floor, first floor and the attic*. The ceiling is made from steel-reinforced concrete and above the ceiling is the attic with plenty of space and then the roof with very small insulation.

This house has a chimney built in the same time with the house. It's a large classic one, built inside on northen side the house that rises from the ground floor, through the first floor, attic and then 60-70cm above the roof. The family living on the ground floor has a wood stove exactly near the chimney and they use it every winter in combination with gas central heating. So their stove exhaust is straight to the chimney and then straight up.

Now the problem:
The chimney goes "through" my bedroom and I will not install a wood stove in the bedroom.
I intend on installing it in the living room, make a hole in the ceiling and stick the stove pipe into the brick chimney. The distance from the location where the stove pipe would go through the (concrete) ceiling and then to the chimney is about 4 meters long in the attic. Besides that, there would be an 45o angle until the stove pipe would enter the chimney.

Is that going to affect the draw or the functionality of the stove? I do not wish my house to be filled with smoke, or have other problems caused by the angle or the length of the stove pipe. Now I'm heating the house with gas and it's price has doubled since last year this time.


Your advice or opinion would be highly appreciated!

 

[armanidog]

Here in the USA each solid fuel appliance (wood stove, coal stove, oil furnace, gas heater) has to have their own flu. It is not allowed to share a flu with more than one appliance.

A Guide to Shared Chimney Flue Hazards & Repairs

inspectapedia.com

 

[neclaw]

Thank you for your help! Makes perfect sense after reading hat guide. I am going to check if the chimney/flue is shared between floors or separated when I get home.

Initially the first floor had a woodstove in the bedroom, connected to the chimney so I can hope that it was designed for 2 appliances. I dismantled it because it was a terracotta stove. Ugly and big.

What do you think about the length and angle IF I find that the flue is what I need?

 

[armanidog]

How tall is the chimney?

 

[begreen]

In the United States and Canada, stovepipe can only be used within the room. At the ceiling it must transition to high temperature, insulated chimney pipe (class A HT). There are only 15 and 30º elbows made for chimney pipe here, no 45º elbows. If there is only one flue in the current chimney then the proper installation would be to transition to chimney pipe at the ceiling and then go straight up through the roof with the new, metal chimney.

 

[neclaw]

I did some research on the house and the chimney it's actually divided in two. One part for the first floor and the second part for the ground floor. In conclusion I am safe using the part of the chimney designed for my floor.

@armanidog "How tall is the chimney?"
It's about 70 cm above the roof. The total length of the chimney for first floor is about 5-6 meters. The thing is that I can enter with the stove pive in the chimney from 1.3 meter under the exhaust point.


@begreen
I went now to check for further details. A 30 degree elbow will do it just perfectly after the stove pipe exits the room. There is a chimney for the ground floor, and another for the first floor. It's just that they are one next to another. If I cannot use the actual brick chimney, I will not install the stove very soon as the pipes for the steel chimney would cost me a LOT more than the stove itself. I can get the stove with a GREAT price from a friend that used it one year and now want's to build a fireplace.

The distance between the stove pipe exits the room to the point where I can connect it to the chimney is 5 meters long, starting with a 30 degree elbow.

I am planning to do the work myself as I am quite good with these types of jobs. I am not a proffesional.

 

[stoveliker]

5 meter run at the lower (than straight up) angle will definitely affect the draft. You might have to add length to the chimney outside to compensate.

 

[Rickb]

Whether you go straight up or go at an angle and connect into the existing chimney you will need to use actual class A chimney once you leave the first floor. It will most likely be cheaper and less complicated just going straight up through the roof.

 

[Highbeam]

Whether you go straight up or go at an angle and connect into the existing chimney you will need to use actual class A chimney once you leave the first floor. It will most likely be cheaper and less complicated just going straight up through the roof.

I would also not bother connecting to the old masonry stack but the roof may be something we’re not used to and be difficult to penetrate and seal.

 

[neclaw]

Thank you for all the information and advice.

I am considering now using insulated pipe to connect to the old chimney from more than for one reason. Much easier on the budget than buying a chimney to the roof because it would require a lot of work on the roof that I cannot do myself as the angle of the roof makes it hard to stand. Then it's about the look of the house. I would not like to have 2 different chimneys. A Class stainless steel chimney would look pretty ugly in the middle of the house.


A strange thing is that the guy I bought the stove from said that when he bought it, the seller recommended some kind of adaptor/reduction to reduce the stove exhaust diameter from 150 mm to 120 mm. He recommended that I do that too. I asked himself why and he could not remember what was the reason.
That sounds a little odd to me. What do you think?

 

[Shrewboy]

Have you considered going out the wall and up the side of your house? called a "Through the wall" installation.
Also it is illegal to install any wood burning stove in a room that is being used as a bedroom, so your instinct was correct on that :D

plus not to mention you'd be sweating all night LOL idk why anyone would want to do that!

 

[stoveliker]

Have you considered going out the wall and up the side of your house? called a "Through the wall" installation.
Also it is illegal to install any wood burning stove in a room that is being used as a bedroom, so your instinct was correct on that :D

plus not to mention you'd be sweating all night LOL idk why anyone would want to do that!

It is illegal to do so in the USA. Not necessarily in Romania. (Whether it is advisable to do so, in Romania, I'd say not - the code here has good safety reasons...).

 

[neclaw]

@Shrewboy Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I cannot to that either because the place where I want the woodstove has a room next to it.
"plus not to mention you'd be sweating all night LOL idk why anyone would want to do that!" - 😂😂 exactly my thoughts.

@stoveliker You are partially right. In Romania, many rural areas use wood stoves to heat up their bedrooms due to the lack of a natural gas provider. What are the options then? Sleep in cold? Some use terracotta and some use steel stoves. Heating using electricity (as I know) is not used here in EU like in the USA, as we have very cold winters and it is proven that natural gas powered boilers (correct me if i'm wrong) with wall mounted heaters/ underfloor heating are way more efficient than electricity.
We have regulations too, even if they are less taken into consideration. The problem with them is that once the house is built, no one can enter your property without your approval and so you can do whatever you want and answer for it after the problem appears.

At the end of the day you have to do things right for your safety and to respect yourself. I want to do it safe and that's why I'm here.

I appreciate all your help. Personally I do not see the problem connecting to the old chimney and I will go wth that, for now.

I'm hoping that by the end of this week everything will be in place. Will be talking with some specialists for the hole in the ceiling, as it takes some special tools (most of them from HILTI 😎) to cut a 150-160mm hole.

 

[stoveliker]

Make sure you have working smoke and CO detectors.

 

[Highbeam]

It’s not that gas heat is more efficient than electric heat, it’s just cheaper because of your current fuel prices. In the bedrooms, for sleeping, we have very low wattage electric blankets that do a great job of keeping you warm in bed if the room is cold. They are also very nice to preheat the beds.