Q&A Heat a small house w/gas fireplace insert?

Question:

Hi! We have a small, one-story house (800 sq ft) with an old masonry fireplace. We want to get a gas insert, and are hoping it can heat the whole house so we can get rid of an Ugly wall heater which does the job from a central hallway. The fireplace is on an outside side wall of the living room, though. I used your Btu calculator (thanks!), and am confident that we can get an insert that has enough Btus. What I wonder is, whether the heat can "go around corners" enough to heat the back of the house without cooking the front. I'm attaching a rough (embarrassing, actually) floor plan so you can see what I mean about the wall heater being central and the fireplace not. I hope this makes sense! What do you think--can we keep the back rooms warm without overheating the front? Many thanks!



Answer:


Generally speaking, the heat will go around corners. Most gas inserts use convection and/or blowers which tend to spread the heat around very well. In addition, the fact that you intend to use it for quite a few hour a day will help things greatly as heat tends to spread better after units are running awhile.

Every house is different and the air currents move differently...however, if a wall heater is doing a decent job the insert will surely make you happy.