- Nov 13, 2012
- 3
Hi,
I’m new to the forum and am looking for options to convert my fireplace to something I can use to heat my house. I live in Minnesota so the winters can get really cold and the house has a forced air, natural gas, furnace. The house is 1 ½ stories, 1800 SF, with a vaulted ceiling and sub-par insulation for this climate- insulated 2x4 walls, allot of windows and the roof is around R-16. The living area is totally open with the fireplace in the middle of the room. There are ceiling fans mounted on each side of the fireplace. I expect on the really cold days I’ll need to use the furnace to supplement the wood burning heat. I’m not worried about heating the bedrooms as I have electric heaters that work well in those small rooms.
The fireplace dimensions inside the house are 6’ wide, 15’ tall and 29” deep. So it’s pretty big. The total chimney length is about 17’. The firebox is 32” wide at the front- tapering to 23 ½ “ at the back, 24” tall, 22” deep at the bottom tapering to 19 ½ “ at the top. I’ve attached pictures showing the inside of the chimney, firebox and fireplace. The firebox is not in an optimal position on the fireplace. The fireplace splits the living area into two large areas on the left and right, the firebox is facing what I use as a dining area between the two large areas on either side.. When I have fires the heat radiates into the dining area with very little heat reaching the areas on either side of the fireplace.
I don’t have room to put a stove in front of the fireplace so I’ll need some type of insert. With a decent burn time I should be able to keep a fire burning nearly full time. Because there is so much mass to the fireplace and my burn times will be long, I’m wondering if I should be trying to transfer heat into the fireplace and allow that to radiate heat into the space? From the reading I’ve done it seems that most inserts are designed so they don’t transfer heat to the fireplace.
Any advice on products and installation would be much appreciated.
I’m new to the forum and am looking for options to convert my fireplace to something I can use to heat my house. I live in Minnesota so the winters can get really cold and the house has a forced air, natural gas, furnace. The house is 1 ½ stories, 1800 SF, with a vaulted ceiling and sub-par insulation for this climate- insulated 2x4 walls, allot of windows and the roof is around R-16. The living area is totally open with the fireplace in the middle of the room. There are ceiling fans mounted on each side of the fireplace. I expect on the really cold days I’ll need to use the furnace to supplement the wood burning heat. I’m not worried about heating the bedrooms as I have electric heaters that work well in those small rooms.
The fireplace dimensions inside the house are 6’ wide, 15’ tall and 29” deep. So it’s pretty big. The total chimney length is about 17’. The firebox is 32” wide at the front- tapering to 23 ½ “ at the back, 24” tall, 22” deep at the bottom tapering to 19 ½ “ at the top. I’ve attached pictures showing the inside of the chimney, firebox and fireplace. The firebox is not in an optimal position on the fireplace. The fireplace splits the living area into two large areas on the left and right, the firebox is facing what I use as a dining area between the two large areas on either side.. When I have fires the heat radiates into the dining area with very little heat reaching the areas on either side of the fireplace.
I don’t have room to put a stove in front of the fireplace so I’ll need some type of insert. With a decent burn time I should be able to keep a fire burning nearly full time. Because there is so much mass to the fireplace and my burn times will be long, I’m wondering if I should be trying to transfer heat into the fireplace and allow that to radiate heat into the space? From the reading I’ve done it seems that most inserts are designed so they don’t transfer heat to the fireplace.
Any advice on products and installation would be much appreciated.