Wood furnace advice

[AlanB]

I have the same unit as Hunterridgefarm in my basement, 1100 sq ft. down in single digits last several weeks and keeps the house about 75-80. It is in my basement, and I open the door into the house as my air return. I have my ducts into my standard ducting, it is not really "right" but works fine. I have the dampers to close it off when running the heat pump, when using the stove, the heat pump does not run.

We are very happy to have it, and several friends and neighbors want one now when they see how efficient they are.

I got mine on clearance after season from TSC. Think it started at $1300 or so? and think we got it for $800 or $900

 

[jenrow33]

As I continue research, I am looking at options for the chimney. My home is a two story house with a square footprint and currently has no chimney. I am leaning toward installing something on an external wall and venting through the basement wall into the stack and up. Any comments or advice on chimney types, heights, exterior versus interior, masonry versus steel, etc...? Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Ken45101]

The outside chimney may be your only practical options. However, outside chimneys are colder than ones that go up through the house. Colder chimneys provide less draft (harder starting a fire) and tend to collect more creosote than interior chimneys. Also the bends in going through a wall and up make it harder to clean and again, reduce the draft and increase the creosote. However, many people use them successfully.

Masonry is a very poor choice. It is cold and collects creosote. A metal double wall insulated chimney is much better from many standpoints. Many people who have a masonry chimney line it with an insulated metal chimney. Masonry is also very heavy and expensive, especially for a retrofit.

There are code requirements about height above roof. I don't recall the exact code requirements. It must be higher than any point nearby (8' ?) on the roof.

 

[JRobyn]

All of Ken's points are good and true. Our chimney in the new house is also external (no other choice) but we used triple-wall stainless flue and insulated the walls of the frame chimney box to help keep the flue pipe a bit warmer. It seems to work very well, certainly drafts well. So far only have about 1/2 a season of experience with it, so can't say how creosoting will be. We had to use about 35 ft for the fireplace alone, so it was expensive, but hopefully will last a LONG time.

- Jay

 

[LeoLopez]

I bought an outdoor wood furnace from Nature's Comfort. I never had problems with it. But if ever there will be something wrong, I'm sure they will me out with it.