Wood stove fireplace insert installation

Please see Part 2 coming soon of this series for some pics and descriptions of the actual fireplace insert installation. You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in. Recent Activity. Wiki Pages Latest activity. Media New media New comments Search media. Search Everywhere This blog. Search titles only. Search Advanced search…. Everywhere This blog. Search Advanced…. Install the app. Active since , Hearth. We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

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You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Updated on Updated on Sep 17, at PM. Installing a Wood Burning Fireplace Insert — Part 1 Please note: This article is intended as an overview of the installation — it is very important to obtain and use your owners manual for specific details which may apply to your fireplace insert model.

Next, determine the type of fireplace which exists in your home. There are these basic types: Masonry based fireplace — This includes the following sub-groups: 1.

Metal Fireplace — also called Pre-fabs, Zero Clearance, etc. Installing an Insert into a Prefab Fireplace If you have determined that your fireplace is prefab, your options are quite limited.

You are left with the following choices: A. Installing a new insert into a Masonry Fireplaces — any style see 1 to 3 above Choosing a Model Before choosing a model, take stock of your existing fireplace. View attachment Sizing up the Chimney ————————————————————————————————————————— Rockford Chimney Supply — We are the best source for Chimney liners and Stainless steel chimney liner kits to install your insert or stove.

Here is how you determine whether your chimney needs to be relined: Current NFPA codes require that the area in square inches of the fireplace flue cannot be more than 3x the area of the appliance stove flue of the interior chimney and 2x the area of the exterior chimney. Deteriorating chimneys If the chimney is not lined with clay tile or in poor condition with lots of cracks and other problems, you may have to go further than a simple lining.

What liner? Oval or Round — Rigid or Flex? Planning the Plate A block off plate which sits in the upper area of the fireplace is suggested for the most efficient insert installation. There are flexible flue liners that should bend into the fireplace and out the chimney. This way, your installation will not be restricted against or too close to the fireplace walls. Wood-burning stoves are advantageous for many reasons.

They are a superior choice above traditional fireplaces and also present numerous benefits over a central heating system. Wood burners are designed to radiate substantial amounts of heat for several hours even after the fire has gone out. Because they produce high-quality radiant heat, they are a powerful source of heat. The stove can quickly and more effectively warm up a room than a central vent system. Like any other heat source, different stoves will vary in terms of how powerful they are and how readily they heat up your home.

Unless it is up against the wall, your wood stove radiates powerful heat from all sides, including the top, maximizing its heat output in every direction. Making it the best way of heating your home. It generally costs less to produce one thermal unit with wood than electricity, oil, or gas. With a wood burner, you can produce a kilowatt-hour of heat at one-fifth of the cost of producing the same amount of heat with electricity. The cost of a kWh of gas or oil is generally about three times that of wood.

And, you can save even more when using a wood stove because of its efficiency. The stove allows for better control of the fire and burns more slowly. As a result, you use less wood to keep your room warm at any point. Considering how energy prices continue to rise, using a wood burner to heat your home more affordably makes a lot of sense.

Of course, you may be unable to use the stove to heat all the rooms in your home. Still, it is likely to come in handy in your main living rooms where you spend the most time with your family. Unlike electricity or gas, whose prices tend to be standardized, wood can be much cheaper in some places. So if you live in an area where wood is more readily available, you could get it at much lower costs and maximize your savings.

There is also the possibility of using corn cobs or harvesting your own firewood, and heating your home at no additional cost. This is especially a viable alternative for DIY fans who are comfortable around tools. In this case, you may need to log trees, split and cut them into small pieces to fit in your stove. This is particularly important if you live in a place that experiences frequent power outages occasioned by unpredictable winters or heavy storms.

You can count on it to keep your home warm around the clock, unlike the electric fireplaces. Wood is a safe fuel source for the environment. If there's a wood stove in your life or in your future and you already have a masonry fireplace in your home, it's likely that you have used or wish to use your fireplace's chimney as the chimney for your wood stove or wood burning fireplace insert.

Such a choice would seem both sensible and economical. Just as a furnace operates best when the flue size if the chimney is carefully matched to furnace capacity, so a wood stove is safest and most efficient when attached to a chimney whose flue size most closely matches the flue collar outlet of the stove. While wood stoves can be successfully connected to fireplace flues a flue is the inner section of a chimney and is designed to carry away smoke and other toxic products of combustion , certain standards must be met.

Here's a look at what they are and why they are important. There are two types of wood stoves that can be connected to fireplace flues: freestanding stoves and fireplace inserts. Freestanding stoves can be connected to chimneys built especially for them. The chimneys may be of masonry construction or be a factory-built metal system that's been designed, tested and listed for use with wood burning appliances.

Freestanding stoves also can connect to an existing fireplace chimney, if the height and position of the stove's flue collar permits it. When this type of installation is done, the stoves may be called hearth stoves. Fireplace inserts are a special type of wood stove and are specifically designed to fit into the firebox where logs normally go of an existing fireplace and to use the fireplace flue to vent smoke and other by-products of combustion.

Since the insert must be smaller than the fireplace opening, there is usually a surround panel attached to the stove which extends out around the fireplace opening to seal the firebox from room air.

See Figure 1. Fireplaces aren't designed to vent or carry away combustion by-products from wood stoves or wood burning inserts. They are a uniquely designed solid fuel burning system in their own right. The fireplace system consists of the firebox, a damper the mechanism that regulates air flowing up the chimney , a smoke chamber the area between the damper and the flue and a flue a passage inside the chimney through which the smoke rises.

Together, they draw off the smoke and gases produced by burning wood. How well they work depends in large part on whether the sizes of the firebox, smoke chamber and flue are in correct proportion to each other.