wood stove insert ideas?

[All Talk]

I have an unfinished basement, quite large actually. Walk-out on one side, basically underground on three other sides.

I also have an unfinished fireplace down there. I built the house a few years back, intending to finish the basebment nicely, etc. In reality, i use it for woodworking and other projects, storage, kids winter play space, etc.

I have loads of firewood on the property, would say a cord a year just from deadfall if I choose. Prrobably about 4 cords right now, as i don't burn it (gas logs -- for now -- in the first floor fireplaces). Aslo back up on a forest preserve.

Anyway, I got to thinking, it would be nice if I could slide a reasonably massive wood stove contraption into the fireplace opening (4' wide, 3' high, 27" deep) and run the flue up the existing chimney.

Now, since I am talking about this on this forum, you can imagine that I am not only talking about a nice fireplace insert to improve the thermal efficincy of having a crackling fire from time to time. I'd like a cast-iron stove that comes out of the fireplace opening to provide greater thermal radiating and also allows stove-top cooking when my natural gas pressure goes to nil in SHTF (or just regional midwinter disruption) scenarios.

So i've googled and seen the kind of produict being sold to the regular public who, unlike me (and you?) aren't frothing about grid-down living. Not gonna cut it, i figure.

Based upon my description, any ideas, pointers or referrals?

[Hidden Agenda]

Depending on what exactly you are looking to do and spend, there are a few options to look at. Check out Lehman's for inspiration.
http://www.lehmans.com/store/Stoves_...gs=&view_all=1

Also, if you have time, tools and tenacity....

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It...5-Or-Less.aspx

[eeyore]

I recommended to a friend that has a wood stove in his basement, (since his oil furnace is down there also) if he could find a way to capture the heat from the stove, (or tie the return to the ceiling of the basement) and duct it into the return are on the furnace, via the fan on the furnace you could push the heat through out the house.

[610Alpha]

I have been doing a lot of research on fireplace inserts (not wood cooking stoves) and I have not seen a combo of the two. Fireplace inserts are very efficient (Catalytic or Non-Catalytic), the non-catalytic would be the way to go imo...wouldn't have to worry about the convertor going bad in a PAW situation. They are very efficient and produce almost no smoke and they don't waste the heat. They have blowers on them that push the heat out into the room so if you had this in your basement you could turn on the fan and circulate the heat thru the house. My uncle in law has one in his basement and he said it was too hot to sit down there comfortably when it was going full bore. Blazeking was shown on Mike Holmes show "Holmes on Homes" and that was got me interested in them. If you find a combo insert/cookstove let us know.

[barfife]

Depending on what exactly you are looking to do and spend, there are a few options to look at. Check out Lehman's for inspiration.

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Stoves___Cook_Stoves___Wood_Burning_Cook_Stoves_p_1?Args=&view_all=1

Also, if you have time, tools and tenacity....

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It...5-Or-Less.aspx

here is the link to the "water heater stove" with working drawings.

http://autonopedia.org/crafts_and_technology/Woodburners/Amazing_Wood_Burning_Stove.html

[All Talk]

thanks for all of this so far. i suppose if i don't find one, an insert is the way to go, as it was for heating rather than cooking that I started to think this way. It just seemed that maybe I could get double duty :-). I alos, perhaps mistakenly, thought that a big hunk of cast iron protruding into the heated space would, once heated, be more efficient than a straight insert due to the idea that more heat would be radiated into the room than into the masonry.

I'll let you know what happens next. I usually noodle on pklans like this for quite a long while before taking action. probably be ready about a week or two after TEOWAKI.

[610Alpha]

I stopped by the local Hearth company and asked them what the avg. cost was for one of those non-cat wood burning inserts and they said $5K - $6K. Including install. A couple grand for the insert, depending on how ornate, and the rest on the install. YMMV

[All Talk]

Wow!

Yikes!

What's with the install?

[All Talk]

Found something like I was talking about. Lopi stoves has some fireplace insert models with a cooktop extension. Not enough to whip up thanksgiving dinner, but certainly the sort of thing that would be mighty handy if the SHTF

[610Alpha]

got a link? I went to their site but only got to do a quick search.

[610Alpha]

Found some links:

http://www.lopistoves.com/stovecooking/

It looks like the Lopi Liberty or Endeavor are the ones that have this feature... Great find!!!

http://www.lopistoves.com/product_gu...il.aspx?id=211 Liberty

http://www.lopistoves.com/product_gu...il.aspx?id=209 Endeavor

Let us know what you find out.

[PerryJeff]

If it were me I think I would just go with a wood stove as far from the fireplace as possible. It would be easy popping hole in the walk out side and piece of triple wall stove pipe is your only major issue. The inside you could use single wall stove pipe and out side same thing only issue is use care probably anouther piece of triple wall at the Soffit attachement and yout good to go. I like the idea of the inserts but rare and expensive. Just my thoughts... ;o)

[All Talk]

http://www.lopistoves.com/product_guide/detail.aspx?id=209

[All Talk]

http://www.lopistoves.com/product_gu...il.aspx?id=209

sorry, didn't see someone already posted.

As far as PerryJeff's comment, that is what I would do at a BoL. I live in a pretty nice home with frequent visitors, so the insert is better for home value and for OPSEC.

[donweld]

Try Craigslist or a local classified paper you might find a good deal on one there I've seen Vermont Castings stoves for $300-$400 and elite is right a non-cat stove is better. Here are some installation instructions to give you some ideas. http://www.woodstove.com/pages/pdffi...Layout%201.pdf