Learn me - retrofitting a wood burning stove to a house with no chimney

During our recent power outage, our cats went to complain to the management about lack of The Warmz and I think they were onto something. Our house is normally heated with a combo of oil furnaces and heat pumps, plus we have a wood burning furnace that's not currently hooked up. The main problem is that none of this E36 M3 works without power.

My wife and I would like a wood burning stove for both the type of heat it gives off and as a backup for when the power is out again, but this house follows the late 90s/early 2000s trend of not having a fireplace and thus no chimey or flue that the stove could tap into. As GRM collectively knows everything, is there a way to still install a wood burning stove for reasonable cost? I mean, almost everything is possible with application of enough time and money, but I'd like to keep this reasonable.

For sure, there are zero clearance stoves out there that don't need a chimney.  I don't recall them being terribly cheap, though.  IIRC, the price is enough that you should plan on using it for actual heat to "save" power money.

I was looking at them ~30 years ago, one to put into a fireplace.  And they were expensive.

edit- then again, I just looked up "zero clearance wood stove" and found one at Lowes for a reasonable price. Hm.   Don't know where to find the exhaust, but I do know that there are designs that can go through ordinary walls.  

They make a triple wall stove pipe that is rated for running through a roof. No chimney needed. 

You can also run through the wall and up instead. 

It is expensive stuff. 

Another option is to build an exterior chimney. They can range from simple chimney block structures to elaborate brick. I have built one of these before. It took a day to pour the foundation and two more days to set the block and flue. It's pretty easy and pretty cheap. 

Just make sure you check with your insurance company. I was not allowed to DIY my installation. It had to be done by a professional installer. I had to provide paperwork/receipt to the insurance company. It may be just my state/area but it is a good idea to check.

I put in a wood-burning fireplace a couple years ago.  I started with zero knowledge on the topic and felt pretty confident in the end... at least with that singular process for that fireplace.  I found the installation manual to be completely packed with specific information that made me confident in doing it entirely myself.  My fireplace uses a double-wall stainless flue that goes through the roof without any chase or enclosure.  It is even a snap-fit assembly.  Super easy.  I just had to maintain X inches away from anything flammable.  I'm even a terrible roofer and I had no problems taking a sawzall to my roof.

You'll find these days that many manufacturers do their own proprietary flue system.  The days of randomly putting a 6" stove pipe on anything are mostly gone unless you buy a vintage stove.  Then the difference becomes pretty clear.  Think of it like the difference between buying an IKEA desk with special instructions that you can confidently assemble in 30 minutes versus starting with a tree that you mill into lumber and construct your own desk.  The newer, proprietary stove stuff is a complete IKEA package.  The older stoves you have to know what you're doing.

I found two companies very handy.  efireplacestore.com and woodlanddirect.com.  I ended up going with one over the other, but I forget which.  I think I went with Woodland because their customer service was great.  They were always willing to answer the phone and listen to my dumb-ass questions.  Of the three local sales/installation places I visited, they were all like a used car lot.  They were very tight-lipped about information and they wouldn't even quote me on anything other than the entire job.

One word of advice.  Don't get the cheap stove.  I bought an entry-level fireplace because it was so much cheaper than the fancy ones.  It was also one of the only models that came in a small enough size for my tiny house.  Until I spent the money on the flue, the stone facing, the hardie backer, the roofing products, etc (some of which you won't need) I ended up totally eclipsing the overall budget.  I felt like I bought the cheapest brake pads and then invested in a good car to install them on.  It just ended up being a dumb place to save money.

Another thought:  call your home insurance company and ask about if/how it will change your premiums.  Strangely, in my case, the open fireplace they had zero cares about.  They didn't even need to know that I was doing it.  If it had doors with a seal (like a stove) they would have raised my rates a small amount.

Last thought:  Dig through your municipality's rules to see if you need a permit.  I was advised by some builders that yes I technically needed one, but it's too much of a headache and I run the risk of being denied.  I did anyway, it was approved, and the inspection was literally a guy walking in and saying "yup, it's a fireplace."  YMMV.

OK... really my last thought:  Don't forget to add CO detectors.  They're cheap and a lot of the new 10-year smoke detectors come with CO detection in them.  If you're adding a chunk of pyro in your house, it probably wouldn't hurt to upgrade detectors anyway.

If you want to go the GRW route (grassroots woodstove), I would imagine you can find a used stove that takes some random stove pipe and just start your learning curve.

Thanks for this.

We had a 4 hour power outage recently, at -25c outside I was thinking it might be a good idea to put a wood stove in the basement to supplement the high efficiency furnace. 

Be prepared for your insurance rates to potentially go up as a result.

In reply to ShawnG :

That was one of my reasons for the fireplace.  It's such a tiny house that a good, hot fire will keep the whole place above freezing... at least the parts with wet walls.  I have gas forced air and previously my only backup heat was an electric baseboard about 24" long in the laundry room, both of which would be useless if the power went out.  I do have an old, decommissioned 3500w generator at work that I'm considering.

In Reply to BoxheadTim:

As a guy who grew up with a woodstove as the primary heat in our house, just be aware that they are a bit of a maintenance hog.  They really should be operated for long periods.  First, because it keeps the chimney from coking up with junk, and second because it takes a long time for the heat to make it through the house.  Consider ducting/registers in floors for passive air flow.  They aren't really something that should be operated for an evening when it's cold, if that makes sense.  I remember dad always saying "gotta get home and put wood in the stove." and "I hope the stove didn't go out."

Do you have a source for good hardwood?  That can make a big difference in whether or not it's economical.  Buying wood can be a crapshoot.  Is it really as dry as the seller says?  Is it an affordable solution?  My family has a couple farms and I have a chainsaw and a splitter, so a few days of labor can net me good firewood for cheap (if you amortize the cost of the labor, chainsaws, and splitter over the long run).  Standing dead is almost always a good bet.  I see you're in WV, so probably no shortage of oak, locust, maple, and Ash.  Mulberry works in a pinch since it has really high BTUs, but be aware it pops and cracks a lot.  Only use softwoods as kindling.

I heated with one of these for 8 years. We ran 3-5 cords of wood through it every winter.

We had an old oil furnace as a backup as well. I cut wood at least once a month all winter to stock up for the following year. As Curtis stated, it's a good bit of work. 

A better option for emergency heat may be one of these. I keep one around rigged to operate off a 20-pound propane bottle just in case the heat pump dies. It will do a decent job of keeping the house reasonably warm. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Been thinking about a ventless heater too. 

I've got a kerosene heater that I love for my shop. Nice, dry heat and it doesn't smell unless you run it out of fuel.

In reply to ShawnG :

I have one of these in my shop and I'm very happy with it 

https://signitepro.com/infrared-blue-flame-vent-free-heaters/

if you buy one get the fan option, it makes a big difference 

We have a wood stove in the basement in case the power goes out. But our furnace went down a few years back over Christmas, and because of the holidays we couldn't get parts. It kept us pretty comfortable for almost a week. 

Thanks for all the info!

I wasn't planning to put one in myself, I'd leave that job to the professionals. Something to do with the house being three stories high and me not fancying balancing on scaffolding. The triple wall stovepipe looks exactly the sort of solution we're looking for.

As to what it takes to run a wood stove, I'm pretty familiar with that. My stepdad restored a couple of antique ones that we used in the house I grew up in, and my mum's house in Switzerland uses an antique (rebuilt) built-in wood stove as the main heat source. That one is pretty spectacular (even on cold days, you fire it once in the morning and its mass absorbs a lot of heat that it slowly gives off over the course of the day) but I'm not sure if I could even find someone to build me something like that here in the US, not to mention that I'd have to reinforce the floors just to put one into the house.

CO detectors we already have, they were among the first items I fitted to the house after we moved in.

Assuming you are considering a free standing wood stove for heat and esthetics, buy a new EPA stove, you will use considerably less wood than using /refurbishing an old non-EPA stove.  Make sure it's an updraft stove. Stay away from down draft EPA stoves. 

I was definitely planning to buy a new stove - I don't have my stepdad's training as a bricklayer to rebuild an antique stove, haven't talked to the guy in twenty years and am not starting now.

If you have the space buy a pellet stove. They work great. No chopping wood, no buying a cord of wood to keep somewhere.  Buy a pallet of bags of pellets and your good to go. Plus no chimney. I have seen one installed through a hole in the wall. 

I built mine. The out going air temp is around 100 f  and it gets it warm fast

There's another process called Isokern.

It a manufactured product. The blocks are molded from lava rock, and fit together like legos. It has some similarities to masonry (thermal mass, appearance), but far easier to install, and significantly more efficient. 
 

Basically, the ease of installation of a stovepipe system, the thermal mass of a masonry fireplace, and far better efficiency than either.

They can be installed in a day or 2.

Ive only done one in my career, but it was fantastic.

In reply to SV reX :

Thanks, that sounds very interesting.

As nice as a wood stove can be, there may be better ways to provide warmth during a power outage.  A generator, for example. 

Cheapest way is to punch it thru the wall with single wall, use a thimble for the actual punching thru of the wall, elbow it up and make sure it drafts by it being a couple feet above your roof line.

New stoves are ridiculously expensive, especially if you want it to be able to heat a huge area. Hell, my Fisher stove, which is bluntly the best wood stove ever made and is not EPA rated, sells for $2500 and it's decades old.

You could probably do the above and a decent used or something cheap and new like a Vogelztang for $750-1000. It's not the best but as a backup it doesn't need to be.

I've heated with wood stoves only for decades now, wood heat is pretty awesome really

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

During the power outage, I tried powering my furnace from my generator. The "smart" furnace didn't seem to like the dirty power from the generator. 

Should be able to run a fan in a propane heater though.

This does not use electricity. Just pellets. 

https://iwae.com/shop/2000-sq-ft-us-stove-gw1949-wiseway-steel-pellet-stove-ha16340.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj--4yuaT_AIV9Bp9Ch2wPgwvEAQYASABEgLgI_D_BwE

I'm in the middle of the prairies.

Wood is in short supply on my property, you can see the curve of the earth from my front porch.

Stove pellets that were $5 per bag when I lived in B.C. are $15 per bag in Saskatchewan. 

Propane is just more practical for me. 

The thing with "just power your heating with a generator" is that things are ... complicated. We have multiple furnaces, not even counting the wood furnace in my workshop, plus heat pumps that we would at least partially have to power from a generator. Which does require much more than our current generator can deliver, although the one we have allows for coupling with a second generator that should provide more or less enough power. But then there is also the well pump.

ShawnG said:

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

During the power outage, I tried powering my furnace from my generator. The "smart" furnace didn't seem to like the dirty power from the generator. 

Should be able to run a fan in a propane heater though.

Then you get a better generator instead of a H-F special.  If you have a large propane tank for cooking and heating, you're already halfway there.  In the meantime, if the heater controls need cleaner power, run it through an inexpensive UPS. That will usually even out the power to downstream devices. 

Similar advice to Tim - you need a better generator. Probably one integrated into the house electrical system.  

Don't get me wrong - I love wood stoves. My ex- has one and it could do an almost passable job of heating the back half of her house.  However, she also usually got wood for free. And keeping it going throughout a night wasn't easy.