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.

Did you buy this as a decoration or to use? I'd be VERY cautious about firing it up and using it. It may have missing pieces, cracks or other problems and need to be vented into a chimney designed for a wood stove if you use it. Frankly, as a heating device it a losewr --- modern wood stove are FAR more efficient at heating. And as cooking equipment it is obsolete and hugely inefficient. It's best use is almost certainly as a decoration, if you have use for that.

There's no obvious reason why this could not be done, but... You will be faced with many issues involving clearances to flammable surfaces. You'll also have to deal with local building and fire codes. The very first step would be to check these things out. Corner installations are often difficult because you have to deal with two walls and the required clearances frequently mean installing heat shields and/or having the stove stick out into the room more than you would like.

Wood stoves do burn clean. Yes, they emit CO2, but it's the same amount of CO2 the tree would emit as it decays in the woods. Once the fire is going and the stove is functioning, you can go outside and see nothing coming from the chimney as the new stoves have "clean burn" technology which has smoke reenter the burn chamber, as smoke is unburned gas that would normally go up the chimney. The old stoves were just fire boxes with ways to limit the air to the fire. So when the owner closed off the air, all the fire did was smolder, which caused smoke. Hence the name given them today, "Smoke Dragons". When you look into a stove or insert, bigger is not better! These are appliances and must be sized to the area you plan to heat. Let's say you have a 2,000 SF home. You don't necessarily want a unit that will heat the entire home to 70 degrees, as the bedrooms should be cooler, etc. So do some research before going forward.