Efficient fireplace

[BigCohiba]

Cheap fireplace insert in our house doing pretty good. I’ve put a couple wheelbarrow loads through it today since our power went out. It’s been holding my family room and kitchen at a comfortable 65 degrees. That said - we had a grizzly stove in our house when I was a kid. You stoke up a good fire in that stove and it would run you out of the room.

[Mike D]

A wood or pellet insert is the most efficient “upgrade”.

Mike D has the real deal system though.


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Yep. Right now I’m convinced it’s the best $$ we spent on our house.

I have it stoked full of wood right now with the doors closed and it’s 74° in my living room/kitchen and even down the hall to the bedrooms.

Some time in the night the fan will kick on and heat our bedroom.






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[jds247]

I grew up with a wood stove in the house. I've already tod my wife I'm ripping the fireplace out and going back to a wood stove. That's all we had for heat growing up. Stoke it up before bed and pinch down on the air damper it would burn most of the night.

[Drycreek3189]

Mine is a catalytic heater. When it gets hot, close the damper, shut the air about half off, and it will run all night on just what I bring in from the porch in one trip with my leather wood carrier. I can put two pieces of wood in it before going to bed and there will be coals in it at 6:00 am the next morning. And last, but not least, it makes my heat pump run about a third of the time that it normally would. In every scenario in the last 24 years I have shut the heat off and just ran the fan, that is up until this spell. It’s still worth many times more than what I paid for it and it will keep the whole house liveable. We like our bedroom a little cooler than the living room and kitchen anyway.

[RMW]

First time I used mine in 16 years and fire would not stay lit, started to smell like a campfire in the house and the vent was open. I said that’s enough and through the logs out the front door.

[whitetailfanatic]

Yep thought cool a fireplace when we bought home but rest of house suffers, haven’t used in about 15 yrs

[firemanjj82]

We stayed at an AirBnB last November that had this wood stove and it definitely heated up the whole house with this small amount of fire. The insert I have in my house will heat up the living room fairly well once there's some good coals going, but other than that it lacks a lot.

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[sendit]

We went went a very high efficiency catalytic wood burning stove in our new 4000sqft home. The modern ones are nothing like the ones you grew up with. Ours rolls out a nice gentle heat by itself and will blow you away if the fan is run that’s built in behind it. Like dry creek said it can burn at different levels when desired. Beautiful to look at too.

[Mike D]

Efficient fireplace

I grew up with a wood stove in the house. I've already tod my wife I'm ripping the fireplace out and going back to a wood stove. That's all we had for heat growing up. Stoke it up before bed and pinch down on the air damper it would burn most of the night.

With the modern stoves you don’t have to manually adjust the draft, they do it automatically.

Fireplaces can be nice to look at but efficient they are not. More heat goes up the chimney than out the front. And on newer homes, especially foam insulated ones they are even worse because the houses are sealed so well.


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[Killer]

No such thing as effective fireplace. They look good though.

[Briar Friar]

Yep. Right now I’m convinced it’s the best $$ we spent on our house.

I have it stoked full of wood right now with the doors closed and it’s 74° in my living room/kitchen and even down the hall to the bedrooms.

Some time in the night the fan will kick on and heat our bedroom.






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What make and model are you running?

[Briar Friar]

First time I used mine in 16 years and fire would not stay lit, started to smell like a campfire in the house and the vent was open. I said that’s enough and through the logs out the front door.

Youve got to open a door or window to allow a draw...just like a bbq smoker. Mine was waffing smoke back into the house too...until I got it burning good. Then I closed the front door...its a good indicator how well your house is sealed...IMO. Mine... not so well. The fireplace negative draw started to pull snow drifts in through the cracks around the the seals at the bottom around my back door.

Im going to remodel for a wood burning stove and trash my insert this year.

[txagyotebuster]

My dad has an "insert" wood burning fireplace. My house is older and has a fire brick built fireplace. We also have 8' vs 10' ceilings. But ours puts out a crazy amount of heat compared to his burning the same wood. Ours will run you out of the living room and his just seems to help a little.

[bboswell]

No such thing as effective fireplace. They look good though.

I disagree. We went with a big firebrick fireplace (no crap insert) and even in this weather it will run us out of the living room and kitchen.

[RDL]

Puts out all the heat you can handle being in the same room! Heatform fireplace 2’ wood with the circulating fan on and it heats the whole house to around 65ish with it in the single digits outside! Well worth it in times like these


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