customer spotlight

Finding a more efficient fireplace

When Mike Kelly made remodeling plans for a newly purchased home in Bozeman, Montana, he knew he wanted to find a more efficient, aesthetic replacement for the existing 70’s heatilator-style fireplace. As a remodel contractor, Kelly had experience retrofitting traditional fireplaces with free-standing wood stoves. For their own home, he and his wife looked to soapstone heaters to find an even more pleasing and efficient source of heat.

       After contacting WarmStone they developed a plan to replace the heatilator with a customized Tulikivi TU2200. The existing fireplace’s hearth and stone veneer were removed, leaving the original block work, flue and sub-hearth. The flue was re-lined with an 8” stainless flue liner, and the sub-hearth was reinforced with re-bar and concrete to handle the weight of the soapstone. Around this foundation, the Tulikivi’s unique contra-flow channels were built stone by stone.

“There are two things I love to do every morning, make coffee and light my Tulikivi. My daughter Madeline won’t get dressed until she has a blazing fire to stand in front of while getting ready for school.”

Saving on energy costs

       With soapstone now radiating heat throughout the home, Kelly and family couldn’t be happier. In their old home, a free-standing wood stove heated only half the space. Kelly recalled, “We had space heaters in the kids’ rooms on top of gobbling about 6 cords per season.” He knew that if they left the heatilator in their new home, it would probably consume even more wood and be a “terrible energy sink.”

       Like most Tulikivi owners, the soapstone heater has become a part of family ritual. Kelly remarked, “There are two things I love to do every morning, make coffee and light my Tulikivi. My daughter Madeline won’t get dressed until she has a blazing fire to stand in front of while getting ready for school.”

       The family loves the slow and even heat of the Tulikivi. “I can have a raging fire in the firebox and my 2 year old Mason will sit on one of the side benches with his back against the soapstone soaking up the heat with no danger of getting burned. It gives off the most lovely heat throughout the day and is still warm when I light the next fire the following morning,” Kelly stated.

Less wood but more heat

After a winter of use, Mike has learned the tricks of the trade when it comes to burning fires in his Tulikivi. After burning a small “primer” fire to coals, he loads the box with about 20 pounds of wood. If there is still soot on the firebox walls, he’ll burn another fire until the firebox is clean. Kelly remarked, “The whole time, I’m burning with all air supply wide open to get a really hot fire. By the time the stove is primed, I see nothing but water vapor coming out my chimney. It’s amazing because I’ll watch my neighbor spew smoke from his chimney all day long, hours after I’ve finished burning and have damped everything down to enjoy the heat for the rest of the day.”

       As for efficiency, Kelly has found that he only burns about 35-50 pounds of wood in a 24 hour period compared with the 100-120 pounds he burned in the old woodstove. Kelly gave a few final accolades to his new Tulikivi. “We customized it a bit to fit our house and our whims and it came out exactly as planned. Phil and crew did a top-notch job installing it and I’ve really enjoyed going through half as much wood. That means next fall there will be more time for hunting and hiking with the kids and less time cutting cordwood.”