Are you happy with the H530? I am thinking of getting the exact same one. Wittus quoted me roughly 3600 for the Optifire and I think 3050 for the H530 from Jydepejsen. These are both workhorses, and I don't think a fan should be neccessary. I went to a local fireplace store and it's appalling the design of American fireplaces... In my old house I had installed an incredible Danish woodburning stove from Hwam. I miss it. High functionality, high design with simple lines that can fit any decor, and a large window so you really see the fire. I imported it myself, which is what I plan to do with my next one. (email me offline if anyone wants info on this) They don't have the zero clearance unit yet, probably not till next year, so I'm trying to work out what to use as a heat barrier as I'm not putting it into an existing masonary fireplace, but I'm pulling out a flimsy gas log unit. My local store didn't seem to have a problem with installing a unit I wouldn't be buying from them. They only carried the Quadrafire which looks I find horrible.

Thanks for the information! I know what it's like to have a regular fireplace, and I have to admit that I wasn't crazy about going without a wood stove because the last house I lived in had a fireplace and it had a ventilation system where you'd just flip the switch and the fan would come on. It did a great job with pulling all the smoke and soot up, but the heat went with it as well. I've got someone coming to inspect the chimney and clean it out, and I've already found a replacement stove that I'm hoping to have put in within the next few weeks. This particular situation just threw me for a loop because I've never had a fireplace or wood stove in a basement before. If everything works as planned, I'll keep my fingers crossed for lower electric bills this winter!

As you already noted, the smoke comes from colder, heavier air pushing the smoke back down the chimney. The fact that you have an external chimney doesn't help either. For its use right now an outside air kit would probably not help much. I would seriously look at an insulated metal liner but only if you dump that older inefficient rather dangerously installed insert for a newer clean-burning insert, like maybe an Avalon Olympic. I have a small freestanding wood stove in a chimney like yours with an insulated liner and it drafts like a charm. I burned two cords of wood in it last year, swept the flue this past weekend and had less than a 1/2 gallon of very fine soot in the liner.

Well...first and foremost there are code issues which are mandatory and must be met. But if the fireplace and flue installation and the proper chimney pot are installed there should not be a problem with proper functioning. As a retired architect, I don't know what "simple" plaster is. But cement plaster over a proper backing board should not be a problem at all, assuming all fireplace and plaster installations are done according to the standards of the trade. That said, wood burning fireplaces always create smoke patterns, over time, on the face of the fireplace surround, due to drafty and partial draws up the chimney. What does this mean? It simply means that with a few fires your cement plaster face above the fireplace opening is going to be somewhat darkened with soot starting at the top of the fireplace opening and extending upward some distance or other. A lot will have to do with how efficient the "draw" of the fireplace is up through the chimney and out of the house. For very tight, new houses this may be very problematic when there's a fire in the fireplace unless a window or two are slightly raised while the fire is "on". This is because for a proper draw, the fireplace depends on pulling air from the house into and up the chimney, carry smoke and embers up the chimney and out the top. If the house is so "tight" that there's insufficient air to draw, the smoke will simply boil into the house, stain the face of the fireplace and ceiling above, and fill the house with smoke and fire smell. Ask me how I know...