Zero clearance fireplace vs woodstove in new build

Welcome to the club, Trailman !

 

It’s about 5 feet from the top of the fireplace to the ceiling. You can see in the picture I tapped both sides of the vent ducts and ran them to a T connection that feeds to the blower fan. That then goes up and connects into a 90 degree 6 x10 register vent boot which is a couple feet from the wall in the back of the picture linked above of the duct kit I put together. I’m not sure if it’s okay to post links here so feel free to delete mods if necessary. Here are the parts I used. The Kozy Heat specs said it was okay to put a floor vent in but the Pacific Energy specified only a wall register due to fire hazard. I’m assuming this is due to the higher heat output potential of the FP-30.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/SPEEDI-...with-Adjustable-Hangers-SBH-6106-NB/202279679

cast iron floor register:

Contemporary Cast Iron Floor Register

In-line fan:



Here is the CFM of the fan based on the 8 speed setting which might be helpful.

 

I have a quadrafire pioneer 2 in my living room when I build my new house. I was told the remote room heating kits don’t work all that well. Especially if your trying to heat a room far away. To keep from having the living room at 80 and the bed rooms at 60, I also put a Kumma vapor fire 100 in my basement.


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Homemade I was told the same thing by our fireplace dealer/installer and was discouraged which was one of the reasons I decided to upgrade/design a remote heating kit myself. Added benefit is it was much less expensive and more effective. They told me the distribution of the heat was negligible and not worth the cost which I appreciated their honesty on the factory system. The CFM of the fans included in most remote kits typically aren't very high. I'm sure this is due to a number of factors, one of which is noise and another design. Most remote kits place the fan where the vent is in the room it's placed in. This allows for easy replacement/servicing. I wanted an inline fan buried in the chase above the fireplace behind the wall/stone to reduce fan noise which required making it accessible through a panel. It does cut down on noise considerably unless the fan speed is kicked up and then it's more wind noise than fan noise that's noticeable. If someone was trying to move the air farther than directly above to the main floor and across the house, I would definitely suggest an insulated duct line.

One of my favorite benefits of adding the remote kit is the ability to pull almost all of the heat away from the basement and send it up to the main floor if desired to keep the basement from overheating. You can place your hand right at the top grill plate on the fireplace and feel the air being pulled in and very little heat escaping (other than radient) into the main fireplace room if the fan is kicked up to one of the higher settings. You wouldn't want to entertain a house party or watch TV in the room above where the vent exits though since it does make a decent howling sound from the high volume of air moving when on high. Not unbearable though. It's very quiet on speeds 1-4 though and you can see the difference in the CFM moving through the vent in the chart above.

 

Every set up has advantages and dis-advantages. I would love to have a woodstove or insert upstairs in our house for ambiance and occasional use and we may do that someday. I opted for the basement install mainly because of it being the primary heating source in our plan. I'm not exactly a neatnik who enjoys keeping a clean house and my wife would definitely push responsibility to me for sweeping / dusting / cleaning after every wood carry in and ash take out. The basement utilitarian install works out well for us simply to keep all dirt, dust, ash, and bugs in the small area of the basement with bug spay and a shop vac handy. It's also nice to come in from the cold (hunting, cutting wood, plowing snow, etc.) and stand next to the woodstove in my muddy boots and coveralls and get toasty while chucking my filthy duds.

I love the nice installs many of you have with the beautiful rooms. I would love to have that, but I know me and my limitations... It would become a smoky dirty mess that would upset my beautiful wife because I wasn't being careful enough or didn't wash the walls, clean the couch, mop the floor, shampoo the carpet, or make her a cup of hot tea after every time I loaded the stove.




I opted for the easy way out...