Wood Burning Stove Installation - Bringing a Wood Burner into the Home for the First Time

 

By Cynthia Taylor

A wood burning stove installation can be used in an existing fireplace, or in an old fireplace that had not been in use for many years. This is possible and in a lot of occasions it's a good idea, in that it simply creates an exit for the chimney pipe, for the new wood stove that is to be installed. There are challenges associated with a freestanding cast iron feature, where you would need to run a chimney pipe to a suitable outlet. However, the best solution would be to install it into the old fireplace. This would just eliminate the need for long stretches of horizontal piping.

Cast iron wood burning stoves are free standing structures and can literally be placed anywhere in the home. Provided of course there is a plan to install a chimney or some kind of outlet for the smoke. That a chimney is just a pipe to the outside is a gross understatement of the worst kind! It is not often that a chimney can go directly up, there are bound to be bends and curves in the metal pipe. The idea is to create draw. A chimney that draws well sucks the hot air from the wood burning stove up by creating a vacuum inside the flue. The more vertical the chimney pipe the better the draw.

In effect the only thing that needs to be taken into consideration with a wood burning stove installation is the outlet. The chimney needs to do justice to the high quality stove. With stone chimneys the height of it was proportional to the size of the hearth while with wood burning stoves the rule of thumb is the higher the better. No matter the height, always cover the chimney, they should only allow a one way passage.