Insert Advice or "You know you have been on Hearth.com too long when..."

[Beowulf]

you find yourself looking at new (ok older) SoCal houses with multiple "romantic" fire-places and try to figure out which ones would be easier to add an insert into to try to get some heat out of them.

Yep, we decided to take advantage of the seriously messed up housing market and swap an urban townhouse for a rural home about twice the size on let's say a couple to five acres one heck of a lot farther out in the stix. I've seen some of the heat bills from heat pumps on a few of these behemoths; one peaked at $1,600 per month in a very mild climate. Unfortunately this is the house that is on the short list. It has a couple of fireplaces that look to be purely eyewash.

If I end up owning this or a similar place, I will most certainly put at least one insert in. Is there anything I need to watch for to make it an easier process? Is there anything that I should absolutely avoid about a fire-place (that would make it very hard/expensive) to do an insert?

Most of these places have dying avocado trees, since the water costs more than the crops produce nowadays. Lot's of high btu wood for years to come.

Thanks!

 

[jeff_t]

That's exactly what I'd be thinking about if I was looking for a house, "Can I heat it with wood?" If your heart is set on an insert, look for a big masonry fireplace that will allow you to fit any insert you want. Personally, I'd rather have a freestanding stove. Room layout, conducive to moving heat around, would also be a factor.

 

[ddddddden]

I too would rather have a stove out on the hearth rather than in the fireplace. I think a high lintel makes it easier to install either type and will give you more stove options.

 

[jimbom]

We have a zero clearance fireplace which we dont't use. I decided to hearth mount a stove. Turned out the fireplace manufacturer said no stove, flue liner, or other use could be made of the zero clearance fireplace. So this summer, we are removing the fireplace and installing a stove.

A high lintel expands the number of stoves that you can buy, if you don't want to breech a masonry flue.

We had a fireplace in Huntington Beach, CA, which we never used even once while we lived there. It was eye candy and not likely intended for use. Now after reading health.com, I realize the masonry flue was installed with improper clearances. And of course, masonry is not the best idea in an earthquake zone. That house had tinder dry cedar shake roofing. Had I ever lit off a roaring fire, if the structure didn't catch, the roof sure might have.