I'm a newbie to this forum. - Thanks for any advice. here's the deal: I have a beautiful old hearth with ancient single wall 5 cubic foot woodburning insert. no blower. If I pack the thing with dry wood and make it rage it puts out good radiant heat, but otherwise it doesnt seem to convert firewood into heat very well. rigging up my own blower fan didn't make much difference.
So I'm all jazzed to get an efficient insert, when I realize that the only insert compatible with the 44x36" trim and 52" mantle on my hearth is a small flush mounted one like the Lopi Anwer . Basicaly I have to rip apart and discard my hearth, or stick with a small insert. I'm worried that that won't put out enoguh heat. I have a 100 yr old 1800ft 2 story house in minnesota. It seems like the inserts don't give much radiant heat at all, and I'm not that eager to have a blower running all the time to get convective heat.
Are my fears unrasonable? can a small flush mounted insert actually heat most of an old house in MN? And is it true what some of the dealers have told me that the blower is not really neccessary for heating?
Any advice appreciated!
So I'm all jazzed to get an efficient insert, when I realize that the only insert compatible with the 44x36" trim and 52" mantle on my hearth is a small flush mounted one like the Lopi Anwer . Basicaly I have to rip apart and discard my hearth, or stick with a small insert. I'm worried that that won't put out enoguh heat. I have a 100 yr old 1800ft 2 story house in minnesota. It seems like the inserts don't give much radiant heat at all, and I'm not that eager to have a blower running all the time to get convective heat.
Are my fears unrasonable? can a small flush mounted insert actually heat most of an old house in MN? And is it true what some of the dealers have told me that the blower is not really neccessary for heating?
Any advice appreciated!