Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
mikec5

Venting a wood burning insert, sharing chimney w/boiler

mikec5
16 years ago

I'm beginning to research the purchase of a wood burning insert and am finding lots of good info here. My 1975 vintage colonial has an oil fired boiler which shares a 'split chimney' with the fireplace. It looks like one chimney from the outside with two (clay tile) outlets on top (but flues separate all the way up). The fireplace damper opening is about 26 x 6 inches and tapers to the (10 x 10 clay tile) flue which is offset to the right side. I assume the offset would be no problem if using a flex pipe. I noticed a few posts suggesting a stainless liner might not be necessary but then I imagine it would be difficult to seal up the remainder of the damper opening. I'm pretty handy and do intend to do this myself. As for heat distribution, has anyone had any luck using the central air on fan-only mode? Unfortunately, my fireplace room is not centrally located but it does have the air return to 1st floor AC. If I get the room warmed up with the insert then move the warm air via the AC ducts I would think this would help keep the oil burner off?

Comments (5)