[Greenbuilding] Fireplace options

[Clarke Olsen]

One small note: if you are lining a masonry chimney with a steel flue, it doesn't have to be triple wall stainless. Oddly, Home Depot is the only place I can get 5' lengths of galvanized flue pipe.
Clarke Olsen
clarkeolsendesign.com
373 route 203
Spencertown, NY 12165 
USA
518-392-4640
colsen at taconic.net




On Oct 4, 2012, at 6:23 AM, George Tremblay wrote:

> Kirsten, I do not claim expert knowledge of the scope of options here, but I will say that I've had good experience with installing a Jotul fireplace insert.  It is not operable with the doors open, though, so it does compromise the experience of sitting in front of a fire.  Also perhaps worth considering: a small woodstove installed on the fireplace hearth would operate quietly and efficiently, whereas a fireplace insert will project little heat out of the fireplace unless its electric circulator fan is turned on.  I'm betting the fireplace in your region is installed on an outside wall, in which case the masonary mass is not going to radiate that heat into the living space.  I caution you, though, that there is a good chance any woodburning appliance will require installation of a stainless steel flue liner all the way up a fireplace chimney both to ensure safety and to achieve sufficient draft; fireplaces have huge flues for the large volume of air that rushes through them, and can cause the much smaller volume of flue gases emerging from a woodstove to "stall" in the chimney.  This is especially likely in your mild climate; temperature differential between inside and outside feeds the draft.
> 
> Finally, the whole fan issue applies in spades to pellet stoves (circulator fan AND exhaust fan), which might still be worth considering, as pellets are easier to manage in an urban area, less messy than firewood, purchased by the bag and thus do not need stacking/storage, still a renewable and (at least here in NH) local fuel, not dependent on the condition of the chimney for safety or draft (they exhaust cool enough gases under fan power that they can be vented through a wall, if desired), can be left burning unattended for hours at a time (pellets feed in automatically from a hopper), and eliminate the entire issue of burning expertise and condition of fuel, to which other listmembers have wisely alerted you.  
> 
> Best,
> 
> George Tremblay
> Troy, NH
> 
> 
> e <mailto:jason at amicusgreen.com>
> >>
> >mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Greenbuilding mailing list
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org
> 
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20121004/0e13135c/attachment.html>