Freezing in South Carolina! :) HELP!

[.Aannabelle James]

Ok, All of you above the mason dixon can chuckle, but it's really cold here. I keep reading on the forum about people heating their ENTIRE house with wood and keeping it at 65! We keep a fire buring all the time and my feet are numb. Our laundry room ( in the furthest corner of our 2300 sft house) was at 49 last week. I have a gas furnace but I'm just about sick of giving them my money.

I have a 1970'2 heatilator (according to the lable inside the fireplace) with 4 metal grates on the brick facade. I have a metal stove pipe sticking out of my roof (no masonry chimney). The metal grates go to the fan which is hard wired into the fireplace adn supposedly blow warm air around the room.

What in the world are you guys heating with? Is this heatilator thing that outdated and inefficient??

I live in the sunny south. I should not be this cold!

Any advice? We have thought about ripping the whole fireplace thing out and starting over, but just can't afford that right now. Cheaper to just be cold.

 

[Todd]

The old heatalator type fireplaces can throw some serious heat once you get them hot but they also eat the wood up fast. Best to install a more efficient insert or hearth stove, but if you don't have the funds at this time you can try to make your fireplace a little more efficient. Does your fireplace have glass doors? A good set of doors will keep the fireplace from sucking all your heated air up and out your chimney. Do you have a way to get outside combustion air into your fireplace? I used my ash dump and drilled a 4" hole to the outside so now it only uses outside air for combustion instead of robbing my already heated inside air. How's your firewood supply? Good dry wood is a must and don't burn huge splits, smaller 2-4" splits will heat up all that mass faster.

 

[tickbitty]

You are quite a bit further south than I but I know it's cooooold down there too this year. I can't help you on the heatilator but your post and your forum name kinda cracked me up. Good luck!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

What do you mean with us keeping our homes at 65 degrees?! I'd freeze at that temperature indoors. Add another 10 degrees or even 15 and I'm happy.