Wood stove install

[Red Squirrel]

Couple years back my Embridge gas bill skyrocketed and I decided to get a wood stove. Trudeau's carbon tax sure doesn't help either. After not being able to find anyone to install it and just being given the run around I decided to do it myself. Figured I'd share the process.

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Bought it at Canadian Tire, it's an Englander 15-w06. Had fun transporting it to the basement, needed help for that one!

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This is location where it went. Had some work to do to make it suitable such as adding cement board, finishing walls, etc.

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Lots of work had to be done above, such as moving my outside garden hose, as ceiling is to be covered with cement board and I really don't like idea of inaccessible plumbing. Also moved a bunch of electrical to clean up that ceiling area as I also wanted to add a 6" vent intake pipe that I will connect to a fan later down the road.

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Walls mostly done, and ceiling done. That pipe in the corner is a fresh air intake.

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Fresh air intake covered.

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Tiles all done, and also added thinset to all the cementboard seams. Also eliminated an ethernet jack since I accidentally cut the wiring and realized it was easier to just eliminate it completely. There is another on the other side anyway. I may use this for automation stuff in the future. All those outlets are a bit on the redundant side but they were added well before I planned to put a wood stove there so they stay.

At this point we were in May 2023. Decided to take a break for the summer as I was still hoping to find someone to do my chimney. Had someone start then never finish the job so did end up doing it myself.

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In November 2023 I started working on the basement again, won't go over the details of this part of the project, but I wanted to wall in my server room so I did. This was always planned either way, but now was the time to do it.

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Stove now moved in it's proper location. This was end of 2023.

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Stove pipe staged

At this point I had to do the chimney but it was winter so decided to wait until summer. I did lot of other work in the basement such as drywalling the rest of the side where wood stove is.

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Opened up soffit to start prepping the hole for the chimney to go through.

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Chimney going through soffit.

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I was debating on whether or not I should go higher at this point as it needs to be 2 feet higher than the highest point of roof within 10 feet and I was kind of borderline. Opted to go for another 3' length since I had it anyway.

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Got the whole setup WETT inspected and passed with flying colours, am pretty nappy! Still need to close up the soffit but other than that the stove is ready.

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First fire! This is a small kindling fire to break it in. There is another break in fire to do that is slightly bigger but will do that when it's colder out. It was +30 out when I did this, I just couldn't wait!

Overall this install was more complex and involved than I anticipated especially as I originally wanted to hire it out but couldn't find anyone to do it. Probably would not have taken nearly 2 years had I just opted to do it myself right away though, as I spent a lot of time waiting for people to call me back who never did.

Looking forward to using it throughout the winter as I will save a lot on natural gas. Normally I try to keep the house cool to save on gas and suffer a little because of it, now I don't have to do that.

[drmrlordx]

Nicely done. How much is natgas per therm where you live?

[Red Squirrel]

According to the Enbridge site it's 13.6488 cents/cubic metre but there's a bunch of extra fees and taxes as well so it's hard to tell for sure what it comes up to or if those are included, they're not really clear. My typical bill last year was $170/mo, this year it's been adjusted down to $100 and I had a bunch of freebie months throughout the summer, since I replaced my water heater with a heat pump one so I hardly used any gas at all. I presume I'll get my bill down even lower with the wood stove.

I don't think I have enough wood for the whole winter so will still end up using the furnace but will use it way less. Especially on the days where it's a little cold where I just want a bit of heat to take the edge off, I can do a quick fire and let it burn out.

From what I've learned through using the wood stove a few times already though is that I will definitely want to run ductwork with a blower so I can move the heat to the main part of the house, as right now it just stays mostly where the stove is. I was already planing on doing that anyway but was going to get a feel for it first before I do it.

[drmrlordx]

Is that in CAD? $170 CAD/month isn't awful. But if it was cheaper before then it makes sense to want to get away from it, even though it's kinda funny that you went from burning natgas to . . . wood. Considering WHY natgas is getting so expensive.

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah the fact that it went up that high, and will probably keep going up, is what made me give in. The wood is going to be relatively free other than gas for my truck to go get it.

My next step is to start incorporating solar more into my house as well, since hydro is another cost that I could work on reducing a bit.