This is our third winter with our Regency insert. Until yesterday, we have not had to heat the house with wood during an extended power failure, so having a blower has been a no-brainer. It circulates the heat nicely and is not noisy (on low). But I've read discussions here pro and con re: both inserts vs. free-standing, and blowers, especially when the power fails. We do not have room for a free-standing stove and the small Regency is the biggest insert we could fit.
We just had a bit of a blizzard here on Cape Cod and while snow depths were not super-huge (6-15"), it was wet, sticky snow that fell at a rate up to 4" per hour and brought down a bunch of trees and limbs. Thousands of folks were without power. Ours was out for 15 hours.
We had been burning "normally" the night before, meaning just using the insert to prevent the gas furnace from kicking in. We went to bed and the fire burned down per usual and then the power went out around midnight. It was in the low teens outside. We decided to stay in bed and let the house cool (we prefer sleeping in a cool room anyway). At around 4 am we built a new fire and I removed the outer tin trim from the insert to improve air flow. With the outside temp at 22 we kept the living room at 62-66 and the thermostat in the hall showed 60-62. Our bedroom, at the back of the house, got down to about 55.
To me, that answers the question of whether an insert can provide enough heat in an emergency and whether lack of blower handicaps that to any huge degree. The Regency earned its keep last night and I am a happy camper. And I'm very glad I used plenty of Roxul behind and above the insert. Oh, and the power is now finally back on.
-dan
We just had a bit of a blizzard here on Cape Cod and while snow depths were not super-huge (6-15"), it was wet, sticky snow that fell at a rate up to 4" per hour and brought down a bunch of trees and limbs. Thousands of folks were without power. Ours was out for 15 hours.
We had been burning "normally" the night before, meaning just using the insert to prevent the gas furnace from kicking in. We went to bed and the fire burned down per usual and then the power went out around midnight. It was in the low teens outside. We decided to stay in bed and let the house cool (we prefer sleeping in a cool room anyway). At around 4 am we built a new fire and I removed the outer tin trim from the insert to improve air flow. With the outside temp at 22 we kept the living room at 62-66 and the thermostat in the hall showed 60-62. Our bedroom, at the back of the house, got down to about 55.
To me, that answers the question of whether an insert can provide enough heat in an emergency and whether lack of blower handicaps that to any huge degree. The Regency earned its keep last night and I am a happy camper. And I'm very glad I used plenty of Roxul behind and above the insert. Oh, and the power is now finally back on.
-dan
