We are planning a new home in Vermont and the central heating system will be a wood boiler. However, we currently heat our home with a wood stove and felt we would greatly miss sitting around the fire as a family. From an aesthetics standpoint, we would rather look at a fireplace. Currently, the plans are to have a central chimney that serves the wood boiler in the basement, a wood stove in the master bedroom, and whaterver ends up in the living area. Are there efficient fireplace (inserts?) available that could be used here? I envision building a framed box against the masonry chimney and facing it with cultured stone to house such a fireplace. I recently saw some literature for fireplace xtrordinair, which looks like it would work...but...I have no idea how much they cost, and I'm turned off by the fact that it needs electricity to work.
1.) Who makes this type of fireplace that does not require a blower to operate (I anticipate using when power is out)
2.) What do the above units typically cost. I can figure the framing, stone vener, mantel etc.
3.) Would it be cheaper to build a traditional masonry fireplace with a good set of glass doors? I am already paying for a 35 foot high brick chimney; the extra masonry would be required for the fireplace and down to the basement. Efficiency would be very important here, we would want this to act as a backup heat source if the power is out. Also, I would not want to suck heat out of the house just to look at flames in the living room.
4.) If we stick with the stove, we would use something like our current Hearthstone Mansfield, which has climbed to around $2500, so that's the baseline.
1.) Who makes this type of fireplace that does not require a blower to operate (I anticipate using when power is out)
2.) What do the above units typically cost. I can figure the framing, stone vener, mantel etc.
3.) Would it be cheaper to build a traditional masonry fireplace with a good set of glass doors? I am already paying for a 35 foot high brick chimney; the extra masonry would be required for the fireplace and down to the basement. Efficiency would be very important here, we would want this to act as a backup heat source if the power is out. Also, I would not want to suck heat out of the house just to look at flames in the living room.
4.) If we stick with the stove, we would use something like our current Hearthstone Mansfield, which has climbed to around $2500, so that's the baseline.
Galvanized is not intended for the temperatures that a wood stove puts out, and may not hold up well under those temperatures. Worse, it can put out :sick: 
