Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Have any of you use a fireplace radiator? Basically the fireplace grates that are cast iron/steel hollow tubes that have a fan that circulates air through the tubes to blow hot air out the front?

With my pre-fab fireplace, I'm thinking this is the next best option to have versus total replacement with a wood stove.

This is what I was looking at as it will easily fit in the space I have and doesn't have the tubes bending over the top to get in the way of closing the flue once I'm done for the night. This model is $485 shipped and seems pretty solid in concept.

http://www.northlineexpress.com/spitfire-fireplace-heater-4-tube-w-blower-sp4-2297.html

 

You might note that is a gas fire from below and probably has no flue. For $485 I think I would pass. Many years ago they had similar device that the wood sat on, open at the bottom and top and curved around with the fire in the middle nothing more than bent tubes. The bottom line it may help a fire place but IMHO not $485 worth of help. I lived in a 250 year old house with a huge fire place it was a good place to get rid of excess fire wood while you shivered in the room.

 

http://www.northlineexpress.com/spitfire-fireplace-heater-4-tube-w-blower-sp4-2297.html

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looks like it would end up blowing smoke & soot into the room. open fireplaces are nice for ambiance, but don't cut it for heating. have one in my living room that has been used maybe 6 times over 20yrs. i use a wood stove in basement for supplemental heating.

 

That'll save a hell of a lot of time splitting and stacking!

 

That's a nice stack of oak, but you aren't planning on using it this year, are you? All the oak I've ever burned needed nearly 2 years before it was fully seasoned. Around me oak is hard to find, anytime somebody posts a craigslist ad it's gone within a couple hours. My property unfortunately has very little oak at all, but I'm lucky enough to have locust which is nearly as good and seasons a hell of a lot faster.

 

I guess I'm not seeing how smoke would be coming into the room as I imagine it would be rising up the chimney.

 

I have a wood stove insert on my main floor with the bent tubes that make up the grate, and a thermally controlled fan to pump air through. Not really sure how well it works since I wasn't burning when I moved in here in mid February. I will find out in the next couple months as things cool off here.

 

Dry is not a word I would use for fresh cut oak. This tree has been down since around Christmas last year and there is not even a hint of dry to be found. The wood when first split is red by the next day it has turned to white oak color. The other wood in the picture is for next year the house wood is stacked all ready. I will probably burn some of the oak next year along with maple it just gives me a bit longer burn driving the steam out. I mostly burn swamp maple I have enough of that for 5 life times it grows like weeds along the river. The town I live in burned to the ground in 1947 some of the land was untouched including mine the other side of the river is mostly loblolly pine and swamp maple don't believe I have seen a single oak.

 

I'm jealous. I considered myself lucky when a friend of the family told me she wanted to take out 2 small maples (about 12-14" at base each). I took them down for her and took it all to my house for next year's burning. Pine is the most common tree out here, and on my property, next most common is birch, and that stuff rots faster than it dries out. I would love to have swamp maple and oak all around me, or if it grew fast enough and would actually grow here, madrone.

 

First ton stacked and ready to go. Probably another ton this weekend. $3.99 a bag $199.50/ton, no tax. Good price considering a month ago it was a $4.99 a bag.

 

so how long does a ton last you?

 

50 bags in a ton. Burn a bag a day when it is at the coldest. A bag can last several days when its warmer out. Daytime highs of 30°+. I've been averaging about 3tons a season, not using the LP furnace at all

 

Too clean, too clean... where's all the bark, moss, and spiders?

 

We all know that whatever exhausts out the chimney is replaced by outside air coming in. Has anyone ever thought about or done something like this...

What if you had a wood stove or fireplace that had a metal pipe to vent the smoke and exhaust gasses. You could wrap metal duct around the entire chimney pipe and have one end open to the outside of the house. As the smoke exits through the chimney, cold outside air is pulled through the duct that is wrapped around the chimney pipe and is heated along the way before it enters the house. If you did this you could have all your windows and doors sealed up tight and still have plenty of draft that would be induced by the fire itself. Sound feasible?

 

You could very easily draw back in the chimney exhaust

 

Perhaps...but what if the duct was down low near the ground or on the other side of the house?

 

I thought you said you were going to wrap it around the chimney

 

Yes, but think of it as a heat exchanger. while the duct is wrapped around the chimney, it could be run in such a way so the opening is far away from where the smoke is coming out of the chimney. The opening could be down near the ground and spiral up the chimney before entering the house. This would reclaim some of the wasted heat that goes out the chimney.

 

Just get an HRV

 

You could do that if you have electricity. But what if you have an off the grid hunting cabin or something of that sort. It seems like a setup like I'm suggesting could make a fireplace or wood stove more efficient by reclaiming waste heat while also reducing the amount of cold air (since it is now warm air) drawn into the house by the fire.