If you're worried about your high electric bills and want to lower your monthly heating costs, consider a wood furnace. But how do you install one without destroying your ceiling? Relax. Just follow a few steps, and you'll soon have a nice, warm home for the winter.

Mounting the Furnace

Choose a destination for the furnace. The most common place to put one is in a family room or living room, since that is where most of the people will spend their time. That room will be the warmest in the house, and it's nice to have the furnace going during the winter while entertaining guests. After you've chosen where to put the furnace, you will need fireproof material to mount the stove on. The most common choice would be bricks or concrete, since sparks can fly onto them and they can stay undamaged.

Beginning Chimney Installation

Start installing the chimney by locating the round hole on the back of the furnace for exhaust. When you bought the furnace, it came with several pieces of stove pipe each about three feet long. Attach the first piece to the back of the furnace, and start adding pieces (they are simple slide-on pieces) and moving them up toward the ceiling. At some point you'll have to get a ladder when it gets too high to reach.

Handling the Ceiling

Take a marker and draw a circle in the ceiling wide enough for the fire shield, so you'll know where to cut. The fire shield is a square piece of metal that separates the hot furnace pipe from the actual ceiling so it doesn't catch fire. Once the fire shield is attached, you will run the chimney up through it and into the attic.

In the Attic

Enter the attic and continue to attach the 3-ft. pipe pieces until you hit your roof. Once you hit that, you will repeat the previous step of cutting a hole, attaching the second fire shield, and running the pipe up and outside.

On the Roof

Raise the chimney up above the peak of the roof, or you'll get a downdraft of smoke back into the house. Pull the shingles away form the section of the roof that the chimney is going through for an easier workspace. Next, you'll put a piece called a "flashing down" over top of the chimney that will go back down to the roof; this is to seal it. The flashing looks like a metal boot, and will actually go down and be nailed to the bare wood of the roof. You'll then put the shingles down around over the flashing, and use a cock tube to apply tar around the base so no rain gets in.

Finishing Up

Slide the rain cap onto the chimney to prevent any rain from coming down into the furnace. This is another simple slide-on piece that is very easy to attach. Finally, when everything is resealed and your chimney is finished, burn a piece of paper in the furnace to make sure the smoke is exiting the house properly. This way, you don't have logs burning in the furnace when you figure out that you messed up and smoke flows down into the house. If the smoke does not exit properly, make sure everything is attached nice and tight, and you raised your chimney high enough above the roof to avoid any downdraft. Once everything works properly and the smoke is exiting the right way, enjoy your new furnace.

Source:

Mr. Ralph Charles; Professional Carpenter; Flippin, Arkansas