Installed insulation around my wood stove. . Wow!

Hey everyone, I finally installed insulation around my wood stove and I can not believe how much better the stove heats! I have a Century cw 2900 wood stove insert, this insert is just put into my fireplace with no liner, I have been running it for about a month and it really hasn't been heating all that well, using a lot of wood and really only heating the room it's in to about 67-69 degrees with the fan on when we were home manning it and during the day and night the house temperature would drop to 64 degrees (our heater was set to 64 degrees) we also loaded the stove full about 6 times a day, I took this as normal operation because I have never had a wood stove but my buddy asked if I had insulated between the insert and the original fireplace opening, I had not, not thinking it would make a difference I put it off but a few nights ago I decided to go get some roxul r 15 and boy did that make a difference! A huge difference! Now I see what's so awesome about a wood stove, that first night our house temp rose about 5 degrees in 30 mins! I was shocked, now our house stays a comfortable 72 degrees all day and all night, with no fan on and today we only put a total of 6 splits of oak in it! No need for more wood right now, beings it's only getting down to 46 degrees outside tonight. Anyways just wanted to share my story with you all! Loving the wood heat!!!!! since this is all new to me I wanted to get your guys input on what is "normal" right now with the house staying at 72 all day and night our chimney above the mantel is warm to the touch, with an infrared thermometer it measures about 100 degrees, this is definitely helping to warm the house by radiating heat but I am wondering if it is normal for it to be 100 degrees?

^^picture of the roxul r15 insulation in place between the wood stove and original fireplace opening

 

I've read similar results in other threads.

Does 'no liner' mean no 6" liner in the chimney?

 

100 degrees is perfectly normal. My hearths seem to run a little hotter then that yet.

 

Considering our body temp is 98.6, I'm thinkin' 100 isn't even remotely concerning.

 

As a test, I put some leftover Roxul on my insert top, after I did the block off plate install (also insulated on top.)

The smell of that Roxul directly on the hot wood stove was too unpleasant. I ditched it after a couple of weeks.

 

Correct, just an open chimney

 

Yikes.

Do you know the safety and performance advantages of a proper liner?

 

AKA...."slammer"

 

Block off plate?

 

Not at this time. Just the wood stove shoved in the fireplace and insulated with roxul. Planning on installing a liner w block off plate before next winter

 

Well, that makes sense then. Your open chimney was vacuuming heat out of your house, but the insulation has slowed that down.

 

Yep! That's what I concluded aswell. It's awesome!

 

Awesome! Where do you live? I am in northern california

 

Ahh so a little colder there I presume. Lol

 

I think you would be much happier if you at least put a short piece of stove pipe off the top up into the chimney.

 

Yeah, he's in the Sacramento area. Big difference in temperatures....

 

Great improvement to the old open fireplace indeed!