This is the woodstove that we have been living with for the past 6 winters. It is rated at 40,000 Btu/hr and probably had an efficiency rating of less than 50. It was also a very old (poor) design. The flue colgged up early in the winter, even though we had it cleaned each fall. In addition, its blower (takes air from the house and blows it around the outside of the firebox and back into the room) moved very little air and made a terrible racket.
This is the new stove. 73,800 Btu/hr, 71% efficient. The blower moves huge amounts of air and is whisper quiet.
This will run pretty much all winter to minimize the amount of time that the heating system (a natural gas fired boiler that runs a 3-zone baseboard heater system throughout the house) is on.
This is the new tripple-wall chimney sleeve that is now requied by local building code for wodstove inserts. A woodstove produces much hotter flue gases than a fireplace. This is to minimize the probablility of a chimney fire. They were still working on it when this pic was taken. So, before you say anything, Mark, it doesn't stay like this.
This is the old liner that came out.
This is the new stove. 73,800 Btu/hr, 71% efficient. The blower moves huge amounts of air and is whisper quiet.
This will run pretty much all winter to minimize the amount of time that the heating system (a natural gas fired boiler that runs a 3-zone baseboard heater system throughout the house) is on.
This is the new tripple-wall chimney sleeve that is now requied by local building code for wodstove inserts. A woodstove produces much hotter flue gases than a fireplace. This is to minimize the probablility of a chimney fire. They were still working on it when this pic was taken. So, before you say anything, Mark, it doesn't stay like this.
This is the old liner that came out.
3 comments:
I don't get it. The chimney sleeve is round and only about six inces in diameter?
Yes. It is a sleeve (or liner) that goes inside the chimney from the stove outlet all the way to the cap (at the top of the chimney). It is triple-wall stainless steel. The old stove didn't have one. It just had a thin Aluminum duct that connected to the stove outlet and went about 4 feet up the chimney.
If we were using the fireplace as designed (without a woodstove insert) the exhaust would just go up the chimney. The difference is that there would be unlimited draft to carry it up. In other words, the fire could suck as much air as it wanted from inside the house and this would effectively wash any smoke up the chimney (and also keep the chimney relatively cool). When you put a woodstove insert inside a fireplace, it changes the dynamics. I control the amount of air going into the stove. There is an adjustable damper for the air inlet. It is a much lower flow than a fireplace. This means that I control the burn rate of the wood. A woodstove gets much more heat out of a log into the house. That is why people use them. But a consequence of the slower air inlet is less wash air in the chimney. The mix going up the flue is much hotter than the chimney was designed for. There have been lots of chimney fires from this. I wasn't worried about it with my old stove for two reasons. My stove didn't put out much heat and I have a very expensive, well-built chimney. The chimney sweep always comments on it when he comes in the fall. I am required by new building codes, however, to install one with this new stove. That liner cost me about $500.00. Oh, well.
Post a Comment