I live in an older home that has what I call a "cook" fireplace because
it once was used for cooking in the house before electricity and more
modern cast iron cooking stoves and ovens were invented (house is stone
and built about 1820). I have found that I don't use this fireplace as
often as I'd like, and it is somewhat drafty even with the wooden doors
to the fireplace closed.

Anyway, I want to put a woodstove into the fireplace and put a stove
pipe up into the chimney. This stove will sit in the fireplace (I'm not
going to block off the fireplace opening). I can put a decent size
woodstove in the fireplace since I can stand up in the fireplace and it
is also about 3 to 4 feet deep. I'll need to block off the rest of the
chimney opening right above the level of the mantle so that all of the
heat won't go up the chimney.

My question is, do I need to bring the stove pipe all the way up the
chimney to the roof (house is two stories and an attic)? The chimney is
already capped with a raised flagstone so that rain water does not come
down the chimney. Is there an advantage to going to the top, or am I ok
just having the pipe exhaust into the big old chimney? I'm mainly asking
because the old chimney is the original stone chimney and I think it
might be safer to use pipe to the top, but maybe there are other
considerations?

Thanks in advance for any info and insights.

Rob
Penna.