I recently moved into a 60's house with electric baseboard heating and a fireplace in the lower room. I'd like to change it to have a wood burning stove, to save money as apparently a fireplace will make the rest of the house colder. Has anyone done this themselves? I'd like to craigslist a stove, then route the stove pipe through the chimney. As I understand, there is a proper way to do this and about twenty ways not to. Since my truck burst into flames this summer, I would prefer to not set my house on fire. 

 

I really know nothing about chimneys or fireplaces. I don't even have a chimney topper and I don't even know if I need one.

we had our professionally done a few years ago, because of the safety issues.

You need a stove 'insert' made specially for your situation. Get out your wallet - pretty expensive.

 

Check local code or ask store people. Probably will need a pipe from stove to chimney top with a cap.

 

These work real good. You will be sitting in your undies whilst enjoying wood burning. 

In no way do you need a fireplace insert ---  You can very easily set a stove on the hearth, in front of the fireplace and then route the stove pipe up thru the chimney.

 

The problem with an insert is you have most of the heat trapped in your fireplace --  with a stove on the hearth your heat can get out the sides of the stove and into your living space

 

I have 2 in my home now -- an Alaska Kodiak in the basement, in front of the fireplace -- and a coalbrookdale severn on the main floor living room 3/4 of the way out of the fireplace

 

Both are freestanding stoves and both are dual fuel -- coal and wood --  

 

Not all wood stoves burn coal  -- takes special grates and a way to shake out the ash -- also incoming air comes in below the grates to be forced thru the burning coals

 

Some years I burn coal, some years I burn wood --  depends on what I have --  I'll never buy wood -- if my supply is low on seasoned wood I burn coal

 

I've been running this way for 10 years --  ran the pipes myself -- the chimney guys aren't magicians -- you can do it yourself -- it's not brain surgery

Unless you are really handy I agree with having it professionally done.

 

I would not get an insert for a wood burning stove, I would have the fireplace sealed and run the stove pipe through the existing chimney and put the stove on a hearth in front of the fireplace. 

 

A stove in the room will throw off far more heat than an insert. The downside is you will lose a few square feet of space for the hearth.

 

You may also want to consider a pellet stove, It's much cleaner and easier than wood but if you lose power and don't have a back up for the pellet stove you're hosed.

 

 I have a wood stove in my Adirondack camp and I love it. I have a pellet stove in my Jersey home and am very happy with that also. There have also been times when I wish I had a wood burning stove in jersey but I have no place to store the wood.

 

You need to look at the pros and cons of each system and decide what is right for you.

There's nothing wrong with a fireplace insert(I have The Earth Stove, it has 4 circulation fans).  I heated my house with one for almost 15 years.  We had a little electric heater in the bedroom and one in the crawlspace set very low, other than that it was all firewood.

 

I burned 5-7 cords of wood yearly.  The difference being the quality of the wood I burned.   If I had Oak and Maple, and well seasoned, I used less.   Poplar, ash, sorta green, whatever and it took more.

 

It's a pain in the butt, it's dirty and you'll need your liner scrubbed probably every 3 months during the winter.  Usually started burning at night in late September and then the fire that started October 15, burned non stop until about April 15 and then went part time again.

 

It's also nice to walk around the house in shorts and a Tee-shirt when it's 0 outside.

 

I installed a hot water baseboard, high efficiency propane boiler when I did my addition in 2012 but we still burned 3 cords last winter in the insert to help with fuel bills and for that "it's hot in here" feeling.

 

It's definitely worth it to get a wood burner of some kind and have it installed properly.

I did it myself and it was a real PIA. Ideally, you should insulate the sleeve. In my case, I wrapped the sleeve and found that there wasn't enough clearance in the middle of the chimney, so I had to pull everything out and remove the insulation and toss it away. The cap on your chimney that usually comes with a sleeve eliminated any drafts and heat loss from around the sleeve. To get the sleeve down your chimney, you need to pretty much stand on the flat area on the top of your chimney and feed the sleeve in while someone pulls a rope attached to the bottom from the fireplace end of the flue at the same time. A friend who was a roofer helped me feed  from the top which was a big help. If you do it yourself, get a chimney company to inspect it for you before you use it. There are caps that have a spring loaded damper that are controlled by a string or chain that drops down between the chimney and the flue to just above the stove. These are the best to prevent heat loss up your new flue sleeve when the stove is not being used. I loved my wood stove and it saved a lot of money on heating bills, but that house is gone now. Get a permit and if you aren't up for the adventure pay a company to do it; you will get your money back in heat savings eventually.

I definitely want to do it myself, unfortunately though I don't know what I am doing yet lol.

 

I guess my first course of action is to figure out what type of chimney I have and how the lining is. 

 

Once I get to buying a stove and such, is installation as simple as knocking out the flute, and plumbing stovepipe up the chimney, insulating where the flute used to be, then buying a specific chimney topper? 

 

FWIW, I am nowhere near installing a stove. I still have more homework to do, and I'm just trying to get basics now. 

You need a stainless steel liner.  It goes inside the flue if your flue is in decent shape.   If you have to knock out the flue, you're rebuilding your entire chimney.

 

Once the liner is installed, insulate it with perlite.   Stuff the bottom of the chimney around the liner with fiberglass insulation and pour in the perlite.  If you have a 6 inch round liner and a 8x10 flue,  you'll need 1 cubic foot of Perlite for every 3 feet of chimney.   Cap the flue at the top with steel and seal it.   The liner will need something on the top of it.  Get one with screens, we've had birds end up at the bottom of ours.

 

You MUST insulate the liner otherwise it will clog up fast at the point it is exposed to cold temperatures.

 

I would avoid the flex liners if you can.     I bought my extension liner here: http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/clbrd/903/category/Rigid-Chimney-Liner.html

 

That place has the best price and shipped same day.

 

I recently added 6 feet onto my chimney, this is how I have such specifics.

 

 

Edit to add...

Many chimneys have a clay flue liner...mine was 8"x10".   The stainless liner goes inside the clay liner.

Edited September 27, 201313 yr by Malsua

I live in NE PA and have oil heat, I removed the gas/propane fireplace and upgraded to a pellet stove. Wood was going to be my 1st choice but after speaking to several neighbors along with the store pellets are way more effecient, cleaner and burn at a more even rate compared too wood. A wood stove installed would have been the same cost as the pellet so there was nothing in it for the store to sell me the pellet. The cost of pellets is not that bad at all if you buy by ton which I did. i set the thermostate at the temp I want and it's heats 90% of a 3500 sq house.

 

I am having it put onto my back up pannel for generator this week so it can remain out primary heat source all the time.

I live in NE PA and have oil heat, I removed the gas/propane fireplace and upgraded to a pellet stove. Wood was going to be my 1st choice but after speaking to several neighbors along with the store pellets are way more effecient, cleaner and burn at a more even rate compared too wood. A wood stove installed would have been the same cost as the pellet so there was nothing in it for the store to sell me the pellet. The cost of pellets is not that bad at all if you buy by ton which I did. i set the thermostate at the temp I want and it's heats 90% of a 3500 sq house.

 

I am having it put onto my back up pannel for generator this week so it can remain out primary heat source all the time.

 

Pellet stoves are nice, my mom has one.   It does not put out as much heat as a similar wood stove and the auger has broken twice in almost 20 years.   It is cleaner by far and you don't have to deal with firewood.   It's easier to control the temps you want and keep the temp more stable.

I've run a wood burning insert for close to 20 years. Heats the whole house with no problem. Yes a stove may be better but when its about 89 deg in the living room in January it seems that the efficiency is a bit over rated. As for fire hazard keep in mind that your running a steel pipe up a masonry chimney, yea common sense prevails but brick don't catch fire. What you need is a cleaning brush and rods to keep that pipe clean.

I've run a wood burning insert for close to 20 years. Heats the whole house with no problem. Yes a stove may be better but when its about 89 deg in the living room in January it seems that the efficiency is a bit over rated. As for fire hazard keep in mind that your running a steel pipe up a masonry chimney, yea common sense prevails but brick don't catch fire. What you need is a cleaning brush and rods to keep that pipe clean.

 

My fireplace is stone masonry.   Any of the heat that isn't sucked out by the fans winds up in the stones.    They help average the temperature by absorbing heat when the insert is really hot and giving it back when the insert is cooler.   I would expect that you don't get that effect in a stove...i.e. the stove goes cold, it gets cold in the room much faster.

We have a wood stove. I like that the heat is free if I scrounge for firewood. A HUGE advantage over pellet stoves if you don't mind a little work. It can shield you from price increases and you're not dependent on a supplier. If you have trees on your property you have the ability to heat if SHTF. Some years I have not bought any wood at all. This year I'm not buying any. I simply cut up the downed trees in the woods and split it. NJ also has a program where you can get a permit for $20 and cut from the state forests. Pellet stoves are not all bad. They are convenient and you can also use corn instead of pellets. They also don't need a full chimney unlike the wood stove. 

 

I have an Avalon Olympic freestanding stove from Travis Industries. It was professionally installed because in case it burns down my house I want my insurance to not have an out. 

 

As for the fireplace insert versus a free standing stove - the choice is yours really. There's not much of a difference in heat since the heat comes from the front of the stove. The sides don't radiate much heat. They design it this way to allow for smaller clearances to the walls. It may limit your options with regard to a blower on the stove. You definitely want a blower to push heat into the room via convection. 

 

You CAN put a fireplace insert into a masonry (brick) fireplace. 

 

You CANNOT put a fireplace insert into a pre-fab fireplace.

 

We got a separate stainless steel chimney. You may or may not be able to use your existing chimney. If you have a prefab chimney you won't be able to use it most likely. If you have a brick chimney you will be able to use it. But a friend of mine put his in a brick chimney and he had a chimney fire because he couldn't get it cleaned properly. Luckily because it was a brick chimney it was separate from the house and didn't damage his house. 

 

Best way to know what's right for you is to have a wood stove store come out and take a look. They can tell you. I used Firefox energy in Lafayette (Sussex county). They are excellent and I wanted to support a local business so I went with them. 

 

If you get a wood stove make sure and clean your chimney every year. Chimney fires are serious business.

You need a stainless steel liner.  It goes inside the flue if your flue is in decent shape.   If you have to knock out the flue, you're rebuilding your entire chimney.

 

Once the liner is installed, insulate it with perlite.   Stuff the bottom of the chimney around the liner with fiberglass insulation and pour in the perlite.  If you have a 6 inch round liner and a 8x10 flue,  you'll need 1 cubic foot of Perlite for every 3 feet of chimney.   Cap the flue at the top with steel and seal it.   The liner will need something on the top of it.  Get one with screens, we've had birds end up at the bottom of ours.

 

You MUST insulate the liner otherwise it will clog up fast at the point it is exposed to cold temperatures.

 

I would avoid the flex liners if you can.     I bought my extension liner here: http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/clbrd/903/category/Rigid-Chimney-Liner.html

 

That place has the best price and shipped same day.

 

I recently added 6 feet onto my chimney, this is how I have such specifics.

 

 

Edit to add...

Many chimneys have a clay flue liner...mine was 8"x10".   The stainless liner goes inside the clay liner.

 

Ahh, yes. I was mistaking the flue for the metal thing that seals the fireplace from the chimney when not in use. Remember how I said I know nothing about fireplaces or stoves?

 

Anyway, assuming I have a 8"x10" chimney with a terracotta liner. I would need a 6" round steel liner like you mentioned. You then recommended sealing the stainless liner by the flue with perlite which I assume is concrete like. 

 

Thing is, what do I do for the stovepipe/exhaust for the stove? Just plumb the stove directly to the liner (which would then basically make the liner a stovepipe I assume)?

 

Thanks!

Wood burning stoves are kick ass maybe vent it through the wall to your existing chimeny. We added an addition last year. About doubled our sq footage and got a yotel stove. I heated my house all fall winter and spring by wood. We put the returns by the stove and heated three floors. No gas pr oil heat at all. It cost me about 70$ per month for gas. That includes hot water and stove. I went through ten chords though. But after sandy i have about 30 chords ready to go. I have nocomplaints only is thats a hell of alot of wood i split.

Also youre correct dont try to install it yourself. Its not a risk i would take. If there was a fire issue would your insurance company cover it.

Ahh, yes. I was mistaking the flue for the metal thing that seals the fireplace from the chimney when not in use. Remember how I said I know nothing about fireplaces or stoves? 

 

Anyway, assuming I have a 8"x10" chimney with a terracotta liner. I would need a 6" round steel liner like you mentioned. You then recommended sealing the stainless liner by the flue with perlite which I assume is concrete like. 

 

Thing is, what do I do for the stovepipe/exhaust for the stove? Just plumb the stove directly to the liner (which would then basically make the liner a stovepipe I assume)?

 

Thanks!

 

You're talking about the Damper?  The metal flapper that closes off the pipe when the fireplace is not in use.  Yes, this has to go.

 

Perlite has the the feel of squishy stone pebbles.  It will absorb water but will release it if heated.  Do not use vermiculite.    Vermiculite is similar to perlite but can become water logged.  Bad mojo there.

 

The liner then connects to the insert/stove.  You should use stainless the entire way.  You want the surfaces to mate properly and have the same expansion coefficients.   Do not cheap out on the liner.  If you can't afford a proper liner, you can't afford the project, it's as simple as that.  Shortcuts will get you a chimney fire or worse.  Don't skimp.