Happy Heat! Wood Stove Help

[Scooby074]

Agree 100% with what MS said RE. flue.

Spend the money for the nice double wall stuff for inside the house. ICC is a great brand. Not only is it safer, but it draws better and the stove will preform significantly better as well.

 

[Baby Grand]

Our Jøtul F 118 CB Black Bear has been a great stove:

Takes long logs up to 24" stacked straight.
I only wish it had the bi-metal spring inlet damper that our 1970's VC Vigilant had - set it & forget it.
I'm working on a couple of concepts of how to adapt one as a "carburetor" on the Jotul's door.

 

[EMB5530]

Thanks for the info so far. I was, at first planning on using single wall pipe in the house but have read that double wall is close to as good w/ letting the heat into the surrounding area so for the extra safety and closer clearances I think the double wall is the way to go.
And yea, I have looked into the prices on the chimney and WOW its expensive but no big surprise as I have had a general knowledge of the prices so it is an expected expense. I only have about 9' from my ceiling to the top of the chimney so that is about $350-$400 in just pipe but I have prices of about $900-$1200 factored in for the pipe but as far as the flue damper I didn't know if I should go ahead and spend the money on it or not.
The stove will be a bit large for our house and I didn't know if the damper would help keep us from burning ourselves out.

Currently I a am prepping the house to install the stove which includes moving ceiling joists for clearance since where we want it the rafter and the joist are not in line. Also. the floor is wood below w/ footing on the back and one side so in order to hold a bit more weight and hold more heat I am going to cut the floor open dig a footing for the stove and dowel it into the original footing. Then I will separate the footing and the limestone rock by laying a layer of sand to insulate the rock and stove from radiating the heat into the ground. The rock slabs I am using for the back and sides of the stove are 6 1/2" thick and will be 5' high and w/ aprox. 80 square feet of rock around the stove. The reason for this is I grew up in a house where my dad and I built something similar out of natural limestone and once the rock and surrounding concrete got warm it stayed that way for a day w/ no heat from the stove. The only difference is his home was it is earth contact so it also warmed the surrounding concrete floors where as we have crawlspace but I believe the cu ft of rock will have a lasting effect on the heat.

 

[DeereMann]

I leave flue/exhaust duct open, and adjust fire with air inlet only. This minimizes creosote buildup in the flue.

As Mossroad said, be sure the firebox is big enough for what you like to cut. I cut 18" long, and have some gnarly pieces that go a bit longer. My firebox will take up to 20" long for this reason. Anything really gnarly I'll throw in the wood furnace. And if uber-gnarly, it stays in the woods! :laughing:

My stove is a Quadrafire, has a number of air inlets & control dampers. It runs app. 80% efficient, about as low smoke & high efficiency as you can get without adding the expense of a catalytic combuster in the flue.

Enjoy!

P.S. of course, always burn only dry wood to minimize creosote & risk of chimney fire.

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks for the info so far. I was, at first planning on using single wall pipe in the house but have read that double wall is close to as good w/ letting the heat into the surrounding area so for the extra safety and closer clearances I think the double wall is the way to go.
And yea, I have looked into the prices on the chimney and WOW its expensive but no big surprise as I have had a general knowledge of the prices so it is an expected expense. I only have about 9' from my ceiling to the top of the chimney so that is about $350-$400 in just pipe but I have prices of about $900-$1200 factored in for the pipe but as far as the flue damper I didn't know if I should go ahead and spend the money on it or not.
The stove will be a bit large for our house and I didn't know if the damper would help keep us from burning ourselves out.

Currently I a am prepping the house to install the stove which includes moving ceiling joists for clearance since where we want it the rafter and the joist are not in line. Also. the floor is wood below w/ footing on the back and one side so in order to hold a bit more weight and hold more heat I am going to cut the floor open dig a footing for the stove and dowel it into the original footing. Then I will separate the footing and the limestone rock by laying a layer of sand to insulate the rock and stove from radiating the heat into the ground. The rock slabs I am using for the back and sides of the stove are 6 1/2" thick and will be 5' high and w/ aprox. 80 square feet of rock around the stove. The reason for this is I grew up in a house where my dad and I built something similar out of natural limestone and once the rock and surrounding concrete got warm it stayed that way for a day w/ no heat from the stove. The only difference is his home was it is earth contact so it also warmed the surrounding concrete floors where as we have crawlspace but I believe the cu ft of rock will have a lasting effect on the heat.

Better check with your homeowner's insurance company, too. When we did ours, they said the only way they would insure it was if we had a professional installer do it and provide documentation. We did. And it only added $25.00 per year to our insurance.

It was only $500 to have the stove and pipe installed through the basement ceiling, 1st floor ceiling and roof, so it was well worth it for me to pay them to do it. :thumbsup:

 

[DeereMann]

+2

Better check with your homeowner's insurance company, too. When we did ours, they said the only way they would insure it was if we had a professional installer do it and provide documentation. We did. And it only added $25.00 per year to our insurance.

It was only $500 to have the stove and pipe installed through the basement ceiling, 1st floor ceiling and roof, so it was well worth it for me to pay them to do it. :thumbsup:

I went with dual wall, stainless steel, solid pack (mineral wool) insulated pipe. UL Rated to withstand a chimney fire. Of course, up here, we burn wood a lot every winter.

 

[joshuabardwell]

We replaced a dogged-out Vermont Castings stove with a Jotul F500 last year. Couldn't be happier. It has heat tubes, and is a lot simpler to run than the catalytic Vermont Castings. And the heat tubes make really pretty fire too. I consider a side-loading door to be mandatory. It is a lot easier to manage the coals and so forth without having to worry about them spilling out the front. You can also load slightly longer logs into the side door than the front.

As others have said, don't take the square footage numbers too literally. A 2500 sq.ft. stove will put out more heat, all else being equal, than a 1500 sq.ft. stove, but whether you can actually heat YOUR home with a given stove depends on too many factors to consider.

If you are going to get into burning wood, do be sure to invest in a stove-top thermometer. Especially if you are burning properly seasoned wood, it can be surprisingly easy to let a stove get away from you and over-fire. When I first got a wood stove, I figured you just stuff wood into it and let it burn, but it's not quite that simple.

 

[IXLR8]

I have a Vermont Castings Defiant Encore I have been using since 1986 and I love it. I have installed it in 3 of my homes from New Mexico to Maine. In my present home I have installed a flue damper due to the fact that during very windy conditions the flue draft can become so strong it overpowers the air control valve. When that happens the fire burns out of control and the valve makes a racket. But the only time we need to use it is when the winds are from the west at over 25mph, which happens about 5 times a winter.

 

[EMB5530]

Thanks for that IXLR8 that is kinda where I am at as far as the damper.
I live where the wind is always blowing in the winter. Normally out of the North but at times any other direction and usually about 20+ mph so the damper though maybe not always necessary could be a must in certain conditions as the chimney will be within 10 feet of where 3 different angles of roof come together so there may be some odd currents around the flue.

 

[westcliffe01]

See if there is a pacific energy stove dealer near you. Pacific Energy :: Home They are made in Canada where there is primarily softwood and very cold winters. I have the T5 model, the fancy cast iron trimmed version and mid sized.

I am able to load the wood lengthwise into mine and that is a lot more convenient than having to load the wood across since it is much harder to stop the last piece from trying to roll out or roll into the glass in the window.

I also recommend buying high quality stainless steel seamless stovepipe for your stove. I have never seen good quality stovepipe in any hardware store or stove dealer. Heat Fab is what I went with. Stove Pipe - VentingPipe.com My advise is to go with the longest single straight length you can use, then use a telescoping section to make the final adjustment. This high quality pipe looks so much better than regular stovepipe and it will last way longer too. Cost is quite modest also.