Hello all, just joined as I have a question.
I’ve been reading up on alternative heating as a fireplace insert is not working for my situation.
I’m not new to heating with
wood stoves as it is the primary way I’ve heated the main floor and bedrooms of my brick (walls) and poured concrete (floors/ceiling) home for 30 years, but now that my daughter wants to renovate the basement into a full time apartment, I need a way to adequately heat it from November to March/April
In the basement, there is already brick lined fireplace built into the north wall, with an added on/external brick lined chimney that goes above the roof line. I estimate the total pipe length is about 40’ ( 6’ underground and 30’+ above) We installed a second
wood stove insert, with a fully insulated pipe, there when we first bought the place, and planned to use it as supplemental heating on particularly cold days, but the draft has always been very poor, causing smoke to billow into the basement when lighting the fire, even with a nearby window opened, and waste builds up very rapidly in the chimney, so much so that it has completely plugged it mid-season. I’ve been told it is because the external chimney is too cold and the smoke from the fires condenses right around ground level.
We pretty much gave up trying to get it to work properly and haven’t used the insert in 18 years. The basement never freezes, but is certainly not warm
enough in the winter to live in 24/7 and we rely on portable radiant or electric heaters if we need to be down there for any extended amount of time.
PS The north side of our house is VERY sheltered and gets practically no wind. Our neighbours large double garage is 10 feet from the chimney wall, and we’ve turned this alleyway into a densely planted shade garden.
So, my questions…
Do you think a
rocket mass heater is a viable option?
I know they have less smoke, but also less heat, could the existing 40+’ chimney even draw out the exhaust from a
RMH?
Could I have a new exhaust hole punched in the existing chimney, closer to the ground, to solve this problem?
Or is there not enough air flow in the area to draw it out?
Thank you