It's here, it's installed, it's working...most of the time.
My husband installed it on our metal "front" door.
For those of you who are interested in HOW he did this:
please message me and I'll give you his contact information.
I know there are a lot of bolts involved as well as some metal reinforcing strips and a metal piece for it to sit on. Hopefully the pictures give you a better idea than I can as to how it is attached to the door. I also have a few pictures of the outside.
Once installed, my husband fired it up and got a blazing fire going.
Unfortunately, he realized the door itself was not as heat resistant as it needed to be. In the following picture you can see where he cut a section out of the door (after he had removed the stove) and replaced the foam inside the door with hardi-plank. He then bolted it all back together and reinstalled the stove.
The door is holding up great now and, as you can also see, my husband loves to use our tiny wood stove to cook on. This is his popcorn pot (which he uses almost nightly). He also likes to cooks eggs and toast on it quite regularly.
Here's a couple shots of the outside. We painted the door a different color as well as coating the inside of the door with a heat resistant paint.
Not that it has anything to do with the wood stove but I just want to point out: we ARE planning to paint all the window trim white....if it ever stops raining...like maybe late August???
Now, unfortunately, this pipe system is not very effective for keeping the air from whooshing down into the wood stove when it's windy outside. Perhaps its the wood stove combined with the piping. We're really not sure.
We just know that when the wind blows a certain way our house is completely filled with smoke within minutes. Thankfully, we have a lot of windows and the smoke also clears pretty quick.
But still we take precautions, such as wearing scuba masks....
Ok, only my son wears his scuba mask as soon as he smells smoke...and he usually has his swimsuit on to complement the gear.
We have discovered how to open some our windows just right to create the right amount of draft which counteracts the air coming in preventing the smoke from coming out.
Most of the time.
Other times my husband creates the draft and blows into the vents to counteract the air coming down the chimney or we open all the windows to create a draft and clear the house.
Oh, one other thing, when I titled this post I wasn't just referring to the smoke.
It can get VERY hot in our house now.
85 degrees with the window open hot
Don't need blankets hot
Tank-tops and shorts hot
I NEED a fan IN WINTER hot
I can't sleep hot
Like Hawaii, he says.
NO, this is NOT like Hawaii!
There is no ocean and I have to work in morning.
He turned it down because he loves me
more than he likes it that hot.
We are all thankful for the non-electrical dry warmth and the ambiance our cute tiny wood stove creates.
When we installed our wood stove (much bigger) and certified (in the region in which I live, which is different than yours, it has to be certified). We had to follow all of the necessary instructions in order to get a permit so that we could use our stove. While it can be a pain, it was also really a good thing because the safety measures help to prevent things like fire and likely the smoke inhalation part of it. There were some specifications in which our unit had to be 15" away from any flammable material. So if it was flammable, then a special-made fire resistant surface had to be present. The areas of concern I would have with the safety of your unit - is - the inches away from the edges of the outside your unit to the walls -- to the floor, and as well -- the distance that the exterior pipe is from the exterior of any flammable surface of your building, such as potentially the door frame, the wood above the door, and finally, I would be concerned that the pipe is not properly set/installed/fixed having to do with it's length/height and angle - the indicator of this, I'd say, is that there should be no way that any smoke can come into your house with the woodstove door is closed. When my woodstove is closed, there is no way any smoke can come in down that pipe even if it is the most windy storm. So initially when we start up the woodstove, it has to be hot enough so that the pipe is hot, and it will such up the heat - up and out.
ReplyDeleteI cannot encourage you enough to get this whole situation permitted - even if there's an expense -- it literally could save your lives.
Thank you for your concern. We have been very careful to make sure the area around the stove and the stove pipe is staying at a safe temperature. The size of the stove must effect the heat distance around the stove because all the area around the stove and the stove pipe have stayed at a very safe temperature.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about the pipe being hot enough makes a lot of sense. We noticed that if we get the fire going with the door open and let it burn for a few minutes than we don't experience the problem with the smoke.
We used to live in an area were stoves had to be certified as well as outdoor air quality being controlled. It was a huge hassle. We went without heat on some of the coldest days of the year when our furnace broke down because we couldn't use our wood stove due to the air quality controls. It was a cold, expensive hassle we do not wish to repeat.
However, we are very open to ideas for improvement on this adventure we're on and appreciate your comments!
Even if you don't have to go through the permitting process, I'd encourage you to look up the specs for wood stove installations. It is my understanding that the chimney must extend at least 2 feet above the highest point of the roof within a 6 foot radius of the chimney pipe. I suspect that would help with your venting issue.
ReplyDeleteWe heat exclusively with our woodstove (that has no flue control), so we have learned about heat convection & lift busy to get it "up & burning". I'd second the notion of having a hot enough fire/stack temps high enough before closing it down or assuming it's self sustaining for the night.
Congrats on having wood heat. That is such a huge blessing!
Thanks! I know Chris has been doing a lot of research but I'm not sure all it entails. I do know he is really enjoying figuring it all out :) And, yes, wood heat is such a blessing!
Delete