Imber Akse House – Burlington’s LEED home

Product / Material : Stûv Fireplace Units

Operation : 2 years

Summary : Exceeds expectations

Seemingly, one of the most frivolous decisions we made was in adding wood burning fireplaces. In particular, fireplaces from Stûv, though well known for making arguably the most efficient and well made precision wood burning instruments, they were coming at a higher price tag in addition to the debate around burning wood. (see earlier post )

The decision came with a price – the units cost more than domestic and required beefed up flue specifications at install which also added to the overall price. At the time, we felt there was no debate – these fireplaces burned at significantly higher efficiency ratings than domestic fireplaces and also importantly, looked awesome.

After approximately 2 years and a few cords of hardwood what do we think?:

1. Performance – The units operate as advertised, burning beautifully and hot with a fantastic heat output with surprisingly little ash compared to the typical sealed wood burner at the cottage. Also, the glass stays remarkably clear especially if you burn really hot occasionally.

The mechanics are remarkable. Easy to operate and simply enjoyable to use; lifting the glass door or swinging open the door frame for cleaning is a pleasure. Clearly a remarkable piece of engineering designed for those who appreciate fine engineering and performance.

2. Enjoyment — Boiling it down to the basics, we simply love these fireplaces for their pure beauty and ease of use. One unadvertised highlight is that they light so well it becomes something you on a whim without effort. For looks — we can’t count how many times friends have pointed out that these units are the nicest fireplaces they ever seen, with easily the most picturesque fires within.

The result, we don’t remember the costs — we just continue to enjoy the decision to go no other way than Stûv.

http://www.stuvamerica.com/en/index.php

One update to this post — Service! Recently I noticed a decline in the performance of a seal where the glass door closes to become air tight. I emailed Stüv to order a complete set of seals and they were so excited that we loved our Stûv’s that they simply sent the set. Great people.

Stûv America inc.

4747, Bourg street
Montreal (Quebec) H4T 1H9
T : 514.396.9463
Toll Free : 1.866.487.7888
info@stuvamerica.com

Our feeling is if you’re going to do it, do it well. So when we decided to maintain a romantic throwback to a less efficient era of home, the wood burning fireplace, we agreed to look for the best of both worlds. The criteria was beauty combined with quality and of course efficiency. Beauty and quality are subjective and relative to one’s current condition but efficiency is a standard that is quantifiable.

We found Stüv a few years ago and fell in love. The short list of benefits are:

+ high end of efficiency at 80+% (measured by energy converted from material burned)
+ air tight – for a long hot burn that doesn’t suck your heated home air out the chimney or cause your HRV to cycle to keep up with pressure loss
+ fresh air intake – ported from an outside intake, the combustion air is brought in from the exterior, burned and exhausted through the chimney
+ air to air heating – the interior air is pulled (optionally from the cooler basement) into a heating chamber (not combustion) and blown back out optionally into your ductwork or into the room without pressure or energy loss to your home

The North American distributer, Stüv America is in Montreal which is a plus when dealing with import furniture like this – a Canadian distributer has a smaller market and is often more approachable and inspired by love of the product. Stüv America are great to deal with and delivery is quick with a variety of models in stock. Depending on your area they have set-up a number of dealer installers so check the site. And it has a BBQ on some models but don’t tell the code officials. Recently reviewed on Treehugger.