New Woodstock IS, first cure and burns complete!

Hello, new Ideal Steel owner here. We finally got our stove installed in our year old home we built on our farm. We tore down the old farmhouse (held together by termites and old carpeting) and built new. While we are primarily heat pump for heat, we knew we wanted a good Cat stove for backup during power outages and also to supplement at times like the recent extreme cold.

A few pics of our stove, we are 7" from the heat shield kit on the back so well within minimum specs, plus we for good measure have cement board instead of drywall behind the stove, just to be safe, several cement board layers plus ceramic tile underneath as our hearth.

We have the cold air return kit on the stove, but so far have not needed it because of our erv. Seems to draft well. We have nearly 25' of triple wall class A above our ceiling going up a chase upstairs, them out the atic to the outside. Our stainless chimney is our only penetration on our commercial grade metal roof.

We did our first small paint/stove cure with about a 1/3 load, good mix of 4-5 year seasoned oak, elm, hickory, maple. We have been stockpiling wood for years so we have a fair number of cords seasoned for 3-8 years. Dry wood is sure nice, we have a shed that is dedicated for wood storage and the occasional farm implement. The next 3 burns were about half loads, stt around 400-500, cat engaged at 300 flue temp, it is almost to easy. Throw cat, leave fully open for 5 minutes, close down air to about half, for another 15 minutes, then crank her down to 1/4 or less, stove temps come up, chimney temps drop from over 320 to about 250-280. Getting about 5-6 hours of heat with a few coals left. We just did our first 2/3 to 3/4 loose load, stacked both NS and EW loosely, solid 10 hours of heat with the stove still at 250 stt with coals at the end of the burn. The soapstones held heat for another couple of hours.

FYI, we run a ERV whole house ventilation system, and we hae it set to provide a + air pressure on our tightly constructed house, with R50 ceiling cellulose, and R24 walls spray foam, and taped and sealed wall sheathing with triple pane glass.

2400 sq' main floor the stove kept temps in 2/3 of house with fans on, between 72-70 with back bedroom and utility room staying in the 60s. I could have pushed it harder and warmed up even more, but my heat pumps did not run for the past two days. Thought I should break it in easy.

Glad to be aboard.

Wade

 

Beautiful home and stove!

Welcome!

 

Welcome aboard Wade. Beautiful stove and home for sure! Thanks for sharing with us. I’m sure you’ll have many happy years with both. I love the decor on the stove. There must be musicians in the family.

 

Your going to love that stove. We heat with a IS. One thing I’ll suggest is keeping a close eye on your stove in windy conditions. We also have 25’ chimney and a 20 mph wind really changes how our stove runs. You may want to consider a pipe damper.


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Welcome to the club, Wade! Thanks for joining!
Thats a beautiful stove and install, you're going to be really impressed with that Ideal Steel.

 

Welcome Wade! Great setup and beautiful stove

 

Nice to see you insulated above the usual.
Did you have a blower test done on the house when finished to test for air tightness?

When you say you have cold air return on your stove do you mean outside air source for burning?

If so have you tried running stove without ERV running and outside air source?

 

Thanks, and yes, we both are music teachers.

 

Thank you!

 

We already are! Thanks for the welcome.

 

The temp is on the outside of the flue with the magnetic that came with the stove, not actual inside flue. Do you recomend a touch higher than the manual?

 

I noted that on one evening, it got a touch hotter, but I was able to control it by turning down the damper from a touch over 1 mark, to just barely cracked open, with 20+ winds. Thanks for the heads up though, may consider one.

 

No official blower test, but a pressure test when adjusting erv, but I paid attenetion to all the details, and selected windows and sheathing and foam for the desired outcome.

We have the cold air return adapter on the stove, but I have not put the pipe through the floor and out the side where we have an external pipe, that is currently closed off. Easy to add the pipe through the house, prep work is done. Right now we are pulling inside air.

 

And to follow up, we ran stove with and without erv, it likes erv better. But still draws, but much less without erv and inside air. If no erv, we would for sure need outside air attached. Still may be the plan.

 

Welcome aboard Wade


Beautiful house, stove and install.



You mention heat pump, and ERV.

Ground source heat pump or air source?
Also, not familiar with ERV..


I love your setup, and you have insulated extremely well.

I need to better insulate our cinderblock house, some areas are downright cold.

 

Air source, to expensive to dig pipes because of our MO Ozark Rocks! Number one cash crop in the foothills of the Ozarks.

ERV, is energy recovery ventilator. We have a tight house, so we need to bring in outside fresh air, and it exchanges the heat with inside air before the inside gets shipped outside, and outside gets used indoors, and we get fresh, warmer or cooler air drpending on season. Runs 24/7

 

Sounds like you have done a lot of homework before building your home.


If it's not too personal, who needs the wheelchair ramp?

My Mother was chair-bound after a car accident. She and my Father passed in 2011 unfortunately.