Considering a CI2600

[Hadabean16]

jumping in here. apologies if this has been covered already. if it has, I couldn't find it! (and I have been searching). Anyway, I found a used ci2600 insert that is in great shape. it would be in an external stone chimney. The fireplace site in a 350 sqft living room. the rest of the main floor is approximately another 400 sqft (750 total o nthe main floor). In total, that house has 3 floors, about 2500 sqft.

Ok, my question is whether or not this unit is going to blast too much heat into the living room. The fireplace does sit right across from the door out of the living room. Can this unit be operated at a less-than-full capacity to keep the living room comfortable without having to go through too much trouble spreading the heat throughout the rest of the house? We are not planning on using it as primary heating for the entire house

Thanks in advance! I've found so much valuable information on this forum already as I start down this road

 

[begreen]

The early ci2600 tended to run a bit hot, especially when connected to a tall flue liner. Regency came out with a restrictor place to reduce airflow that helped a lot with this issue. It would be to know this has been put in place.

Comfort is going to be dependent on how well heat can convect thru the house. How open is the fireplace room to the rest of the main floor? Where is the stairwell in relation to the fireplace room?

 

[Hadabean16]

Oh, ok. I'll see if I can find out about the restrictor plate. I'll share a layout of the first floor. really appreciate the help!

 

[begreen]

There are some postings about the restrictor plate in the early days of this Regency thread.

The insert will do a good job of heating the 750 sq ft area. To avoid overheating the space burn partial loads of fuel instead of a fully loaded firebox when it's not very cold outside. The heat will have a hard time migrating into the other half of the floor and up stairs due to the restriction of the doorway connecting them. Distribution could be assisted with a fan, but the question may be where to locate it. It shouldn't block traffic through that doorway. There are wall fans that use the stud cavity and/or a ducted system in the basement, pulling cooler air from the dining area and blowing it into the fireplace area could help.

 

[GA Wood Burner]

jumping in here. apologies if this has been covered already. if it has, I couldn't find it! (and I have been searching). Anyway, I found a used ci2600 insert that is in great shape. it would be in an external stone chimney. The fireplace site in a 350 sqft living room. the rest of the main floor is approximately another 400 sqft (750 total o nthe main floor). In total, that house has 3 floors, about 2500 sqft.

Ok, my question is whether or not this unit is going to blast too much heat into the living room. The fireplace does sit right across from the door out of the living room. Can this unit be operated at a less-than-full capacity to keep the living room comfortable without having to go through too much trouble spreading the heat throughout the rest of the house? We are not planning on using it as primary heating for the entire house

Thanks in advance! I've found so much valuable information on this forum already as I start down this road

We've been using a ci2600 for about 6 yrs now to heat a 425 sq ft living room w/14 ft ceiling + foyer ( and also opens into dining room and kitchen) and just my observation is that this thing can certainly put out a lot of heat. Our unit has only low and high for the blower. And that's really my only problem with it is that it only has a two speed blower. Low does a pretty good job for us most of the time but high blows entirely much hot air and is far too noisy to useful while we are in the living room so we don't use high until we go to bed. Then we just put the blower on high and let it blow it's little heart out! So, to answer your question, yes, it can operate at a lower level of heat out put but it can probably also blast out too much heat, just depends on you situation and use.

Just my opinion but it needs a middle speed and to that end I have purchased a rheostat designed for fire place insert blowers. I intend to try and wire into the high speed line soon. Hopefully it will work like imagine and I'll have low speed blower and then also a variable speed blower when it's on high. We'll see.

 

[Hadabean16]

Thanks so much. I'll explore the restrictor plate posts. I'm trying to confirm that we will be able to enjoy the fire in the living room without sweating before going through a whole install. Very much appreciate the thoughts

 

[Hadabean16]

We've been using a ci2600 for about 6 yrs now to heat a 425 sq ft living room w/14 ft ceiling + foyer ( and also opens into dining room and kitchen) and just my observation is that this thing can certainly put out a lot of heat. Our unit has only low and high for the blower. And that's really my only problem with it is that it only has a two speed blower. Low does a pretty good job for us most of the time but high blows entirely much hot air and is far too noisy to useful while we are in the living room so we don't use high until we go to bed. Then we just put the blower on high and let it blow it's little heart out! So, to answer your question, yes, it can operate at a lower level of heat out put but it can probably also blast out too much heat, just depends on you situation and use.

Just my opinion but it needs a middle speed and to that end I have purchased a rheostat designed for fire place insert blowers. I intend to try and wire into the high speed line soon. Hopefully it will work like imagine and I'll have low speed blower and then also a variable speed blower when it's on high. We'll see.

Thanks for the input! It seems like you have more space in your living room and more openings into the rest of your house. How hot does it get in there with the fan on low? It seems to me that if it's borderline too hot in your layout, it would certainly be too much for mine. we have a 350 sqft room, 9 ft ceilings, and only one doorway into the rest of the house. Good luck with the fan hacking! perhaps if low is too low for you it could be just right for us

 

[GA Wood Burner]

Thanks for the input! It seems like you have more space in your living room and more openings into the rest of your house. How hot does it get in there with the fan on low? It seems to me that if it's borderline too hot in your layout, it would certainly be too much for mine. we have a 350 sqft room, 9 ft ceilings, and only one doorway into the rest of the house. Good luck with the fan hacking! perhaps if low is too low for you it could be just right for us

Oh, I'm not unhappy with low speed as it does a pretty good job, most of the time. With outside evening temps in the high to mid 30s, a full fire box going full tilt it can easily get the living room up to 74-76 ( but we don't like it that warm so if it does get too warm we use a ceiling fan to circulate the warm air). With low 30s or below I have to increase the fire burn rate or switch to the higher blower speed and live with the noise. That's what I don't like.

Please note that you do have some control over how much heat the thing puts out by using the air flow control, how much wood you burn, using low or high blower speed, etc. I'd guess in your colder climate you would probably be just fine with a ci2600.

 

[Hadabean16]

I might have just had a "duh" moment and now I'm perhaps overly excited. We have another fireplace (see diagram and photo) that's smaller, but I just measured and it would fit the 2600, fairly well actually. The placement here could make heat disbursement throughout the rest of the floor much easier. Many more doorways in this room. the question is still 2600? or smaller unit. This chimney is currently being use to vent our oil heat system, but we are putting in a high-velocity system sometime this/next month, freeing up the chimney. I'm thinking conventional open fire in the 350sqft room occasionally for ambience/special occasions and use the 2600 insert in the front room for (maybe?) significant supplemental heating of the first floor/whatever I can get upstairs. I suppose I'd have to extend the hearth to put an insert in this fireplace. All thoughts and any other major considerations I'm missing are most welcome.

 

[begreen]

The larger area is more appropriately sized for the insert. Narrow doorways are not great for convecting heat room to room without assistance. That said, consider where one will derive the most pleasure from it which is often the space where people hang out the most.

 

[GA Wood Burner]

Think I'd have to agree with begreen, put it in the larger room. The other room seems awfully small for the amount of heat it can put put, and as begreen pointed out door ways could pose a heat distribution issue. We problem

 

[GA Wood Burner]

Oops! Hit Post by mistake! I was going to say that we don't seem to have a heat distribution problem because on one of the living room is a 10+' opening into the dining room and that opens into the kitchen. One side of the living room opens into a large foyer that runs the length of the living room and the other side has two 6' openings (use to be two sets of exterior french doors) into a sun room. Lots of area for heat to circulate around.

 

[Hadabean16]

hmmm, glad I asked here. Thanks, @GA Wood Burner and @begreen for your input. Now I'm in the phase of exploring potential heat movement...time to start scouring this forum for related posts... I'm thinking push cold air in from the dining room via vent/inline fan to maybe get some heat out of the one doorway. The master bed/bath sits directly above the larger downstairs room where the insert would go. Maybe some type of ceiling vent to let heat rise up into the bedroom, but that seems both mostly futile and possibly unsafe/against fire code. Ah well, the exploration continues. Thanks both for your thoughts.

 

[begreen]

I've moved this inquiry to its own thread from the general, ci2600 operation thread.