Pellet stove add on

Hello, I am looking to add onto my pellet stove with thermal mass. I was planning on taking the exhaust and running it ten feet thru stove pipe and then using my existing side wall chimney to get the exhaust out of the house. I know I have seen this done years ago and was looking for more information on it, as I can’t recall where I saw it. Thanks

Bill Eubanks wrote:Hello, I am looking to add onto my pellet stove with thermal mass. I was planning on taking the exhaust and running it ten feet thru stove pipe and then using my existing side wall chimney to get the exhaust out of the house. I know I have seen this done years ago and was looking for more information on it, as I can’t recall where I saw it. Thanks

It is not really a good trick to try because it will make the draft go way, way down. A pellet stove does have a power draft, but before it kicks in, it is going to make lighting the stove nearly impossible, and could smoke up the house. That is laced with carbon monoxide which can also kill you. It might be worth doing if you got some measurable amount of extra heat out of the chimney, but I do not see getting a whole lot to be honest with you.  Pellet stoves are pretty efficient by themselves, so going through all that, just for a teeny-tiny amount of extra heat will not really amount to much. Ad in the potential to kill, and it is just not worth doing.

A lot of people have devised different ways to help a heater do a better job, but they often forget to mention the drawbacks of what they have installed too.

Hi Bill ; Welcome to Permies
I agree with Travis.
I think the best way to help your pellet stove if its free standing .Would be to surround it with brick, or rock.  
Extending the exhaust would hardly  be worth the effort, as well as potentially dangerous.  

Hello Bill, welcome to permies.

It sounds like a Rocket Mass Heater fed by pellets would interest you. Check out this youtube of one and let me know what you think of it.

What about one or two of those air to air heat exchangers that go in the stack? I knew a guy who placed three of them in his wood stove stack and burned his wood stove as hot as he could get it. It worked impressvely well.
Ive seen one on a Wiseway pellet stove stack and the owner said it made a big difference.

Thanks for all of your replies.

Found this from 6 years ago
conservation
capture heat from pellet stove flue?

I have a hydronic system with a oil fired boiler. I bought a pellet stove and I added 6 passes of 3/4" pipe in the firebox and tied it into the boiler with a circulation pump. With some changes to the pellet stove controls, when the boiler calls for the oil burner, instead  the pellet stove goes to a higher setting and the circulation pump runs faster. I have a pressure relief valve on the stove and boiler. Pellet stove runs 24/7 in cold weather and goes between minimum setting (40lbs in 30 hours) to a higher setting depending on the weather. I use 2 percentage timers to control the auger feed and kept all the safety features. The oil burner only comes on in extremely cold weather or when the pellet stove is offline.

Lepke Buchalter wrote:I have a hydronic system with a oil fired boiler. I bought a pellet stove and I added 6 passes of 3/4" pipe in the firebox and tied it into the boiler with a circulation pump. With some changes to the pellet stove controls, when the boiler calls for the oil burner, instead  the pellet stove goes to a higher setting and the circulation pump runs faster. I have a pressure relief valve on the stove and boiler. Pellet stove runs 24/7 in cold weather and goes between minimum setting (40lbs in 30 hours) to a higher setting depending on the weather. I use 2 percentage timers to control the auger feed and kept all the safety features. The oil burner only comes on in extremely cold weather or when the pellet stove is offline.

Lepke. Wow! That’s a nice setup for any Winter event!. And if one has a malfunction you have the other. So you hacked your pellet stove?  What is a percentage timer? What pump did you use? Thanks
I like hydronics as one can tweak the system and add a heat source or heat load. With the newer variable rate burn and variable speed pump it really adds some options. Ive not tried them yet but want to. I built a DIY propane hydronic system in my Motorhome and then added a DIY  rocket stove pellet burner with a hydronic heat exchanger. Ive never tried variable speed pumps and may try it as my old pump is not working right now anyway. And I have a leak in my new pellet stove heat exchanger. My heart is in Mexico this time of year and I’m lagging to get this working correctly. But I’ll get inspired again.