Tell me about wood-burning fireplace inserts

In My Humble Opinion
1

I want one. I’m tired of burning loads of wood for marginal, if any, heating benefit. I’m tired of waking up to an ice-cold living room floor because of the cold air that flowed down the chimney after last night’s fire went out.

I have a 42" wide fireplace. I love curling up next to the fire on a cold winter’s night, and I’ve got a fair number of oak trees that still need to be cleared from my property, so I am pretty set on wood-burning. No pellets, goal, or gas for me, I think. I’m leaning toward a non-catalytic insert, but most of the ones large enough to make full use of my large fireplace seem to be catalytic. Are catalytic stoves/inserts as much as a pain as some of the reviews out there make them seem?

I’m going to go shopping tomorrow. What sort of features should I be looking for? Any brands that you like? Any to definitely stay away from? What will I later be kicking myself for not considering before making my selection?

2

You will lose the aesthetic of the open fireplace with the insert. What you will end up with is more akin to a wood burning stove that radiates heat. They are great for economizing the use of firewood and generating heat for the room that they occupy. You will probably need to keep a kettle of water on top of it to provide some moisture back into to the room, as the insert, while burning, will dry out the room.

3

We have one, a Pacific Energy brand Pacific insert, and it rocks. It’s the primary source of heat for our 1500 sq.ft. house all winter in New England. We had it installed right before Thanksgiving 2008. It burns cleanly and efficiently with very little ash (so long as we use decent, seasoned wood, of course). We use less than three cords of wood per winter, with some supplementation from our oil boiler, which also heats our water.

Non-catalytic is the way to go, IMHO, for ease of use. Catalytic and non are neck and neck for ongoing efficiency (catalytic converter media gets “dirty” and loses efficiency over time; you replace it periodically but I think the prevailing wisdom is that on average, the two types are about equal).

Note that any stove you can buy new now is massively more clean and efficient than anything made before 1990. Since then, the EPA has made and enforced lovely new rules. And the only difference between a modern insert and a modern free-standing stove is the shape. Older inserts were mostly for show, I gather.

I wouldn’t worry about trying to “make full use” of your fireplace’s size; the size of a modern woodstove (insert or not) is carefully calibrated for efficiency, and too large = inefficient burn. You want to size the stove for your heating needs.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to make sure your chimney is the right size for the job, which usually means paying for a new liner and its installation. The mechanics of burning just don’t work if the chimney doesn’t draw properly. If your chimney is badly positioned, you may always have trouble with draw. Great chimneys are in the middle of the house and exit the roof at or near its highest peak. Lousy chimneys are on the outside of the smallest or coldest wall, with lots of roof at higher elevations. Sadly, this describes many houses built since the 40s and especially those in the 70s.

No matter how great the stove and its installation, it won’t heat your house without good air circulation. The Pacific insert includes a burn fan that helps burn efficiency but also helps circulation, and we supplement that with little fans in the upper corners of a few key doorways (my husband rigged up super-cheap computer case fans for this, but you can buy specialty fans if you want to).

Woodheat.org is a great resource, especially the articles about chimneys.

4

Counld you get a wood stove like this and hook up the smoke stack to your existing chimney?

You still can see the pretty flames, but moch better heat output

Brian