A THOUSAND QUESTIONS

[tiber]

Alright maybe not 1000. Me and my wife just bought a new house, I've now got an open faced fireplace. I've had a few small fires in it but we've always said it's for appearance, it didn't seem to put out much heat unless you've got your feet in it. (Which is great until your socks catch on fire!)

It's got:
1) Glass doors and chain curtains
2) A flue
3) A top and bottom vent

The master bedroom is above the room with the fireplace and the chimney runs right up the wall past it. I said to myself, "Myself, we should be able to build a fire and not have to run the oil heat!

BOY AM I GLAD I FOUND THIS FORUM BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING.

For whatever reason, we can have fires but they might warm the room a little, but I feel like I'm not getting the performance I want.

My procedure is:
1) Open flue
2) Add wood
3) Set wood on fire

So basically I'm not adjusting the flue (tips?), not using the glass doors, and not using the top and bottom vent. I keep the top closed and the bottom open and leave the glass open on the fireplace with just the chains shut. Any and all advice is appreciated.

I may just end up buying a wood stove and putting it in the basement.

Obligatory fireplace porn:

 

[branchburner]

I've enjoyed fireplaces for many years. But they don't heat a house. I discovered, during a power outage, that mine pulled so much outside air in that the house was actually getting colder! Sure, it's warm right by the fire, but unless that fire is going 24/7 and you use an acre of wood, it won't warm beyond the immediate the space.

Get a stove. For best results extend your hearth and put it in the living space, not the basement.

 

[Corey]

Welcome to the forum. You're going to get pretty minimal heat with an open fireplace regardless of how you operate it. With a big bed of coals and a radiant 'fire back' you might get a little heat into the immediate room, but you're sucking in a lot of cold air to replace what is going up the flue. Closing the glass doors just cuts off all the radiant heat to the room and makes the situation worse. You can't really close the flue on a fireplace or you risk smoke and fumes backing up into the house. There are some types of 'Heatilators' or heat exchangers which you can add to fireplaces to recover a little more heat, but for any type of real heat, you'd have to go with an insert or free standing stove. The heat would be about the same from either, though an insert will require a fan because it is set deep in the fireplace. A freestanding stove can work without a fan since it is exposed, though a fan can help circulate heat to other parts of the house.

There have been many other posts on this including more info than I can type here so feel free to search around and have fun.

 

[myzamboni]

blow a fan on the glass when doors closed & keep the doors closed for more heat

thanks for playing, but <buzzer>. I had this same setup prior to a remodel. With the doors closed the wood burns a liltle slower but all the heat still goes up the chimney.

To the OP:

fireplace=form (not much heat but pretty)

wood stove =form + function (heat and pretty fire show)

 

[DAKSY]

You can try all you want to get heat out of your fireplace & you will NEVER be successful.
You will only get warmth - not heat - & some of that warmth will be from the air you've
already paid to heat, in the rest of the house, going past you & up the flue...
Unless you have pyroceram in the doors, & I'm willing to bet you don't, keep the doors open
when you burn. Tempered glass is NOT rated for the heat of a sealed fireplace & WILL shatter.
I hafta replace tempered glass for homeowners all winter long, because no one ever told them that
they hadda burn with the doors open.
Get an insert or a wood burning stove & enjoy your heat while it's STILL in your home...

 

[Todd]

Cant tell by your picture if you have vents above the fire box to let some heat out or if it's just a plain old ambiance type fireplace? Some fireplaces like mine are called heatalator or heatform and have supply and return vents around the firebox which will throw a ton of heat after the fire box gets heated up, but they still burn a ton of wood and aren't as efficient as an insert. I burn mine once in awhile and it's nice to have a huge fire view and traditional fire at times.

 

[tiber]

Thanks for the replies. I'll do some research elsewhere on the site. From what I am reading - a fireplace insert is the way to go and makes roughly the same amount of BTU as a stove if I have a blower on it.

Also thanks for the tip about the top vent. I leave it closed. I'll try it with it open.

 

[Wet1]

Yes, if you want heat, you need a stove or an insert. 90% of your heat goes up the flue with a traditional fireplace.

 

[stejus]

I have a fireplace family room and really enjoyed fires on the weekend for the past 16 years. Last year when oil hit 4.85/gallon in July, I said there aint no way in H*&% that I will run a fireplace this year (2008/2009 winter) because you loose more heat than you produce. Long and short of it is I went and researched EPA wood stove inserts and purchased one in Dec 2009. Once you realize you can turn an inefficient fireplace into a heating appliance, you'll ask yourself why you didn't do this earlier.

 

[SteveKG]

Stove or insert is about the only reasonable way to get heat from that space. In our home, I spent a summer during building to construct a Rumsford fireplace, which you don't have. It can blast you from the room it's in but not heat the rest of the house too very much [I could use fans, but...]. I doubt you would want to rebuild the thing into a Rumsford [big $$$ and big mess].

If it were my home, and the floor plan makes it possible [and you can run stovepipe safely], I would keep the fireplace for viewing [pleasure] and put a stove somewhere else. However, you have a nice place to put a stove right there at the fireplace if you are willing to forgo the open fire. Or get one of the models with glass doors. Perhaps that is the best compromise.

I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with the other responders: it will be a struggle to get heat from that fireplace as it was not designed to heat. That fire is pretty, though.

 

[randy1]

Like other people on here have said, I would go with an insert. Those fireplaces don't do any good, because they may somewhat warm the room you are in, but it just brings cold air into your house from outside. They may only have 15% efficiency, IF you are lucky. I wouldn't recommend putting a wood stove in the basement, unless you spend most of your time down there. Otherwise, you will be using a lot of wood to try and get the heat upstairs. One last option would to get a wood add on furnace. If you already have ducting, it would put heat throughout your whole house. Good luck!

 

[rickw]

You guys are full of it. A fireplace heats up the house just fine - start a fire and pretty soon the furnace kicks on and yer nice and warm...

 

[greythorn3]

your right mine makes the furnace kick on too.. im gonna try burning a woodstove and a fireplace in the same room this year to get 2x the heat.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

the only time youll get any heat from an open fireplace is when there is a heap of coals in there glowing.

if then even.

My GF used to have a small house with a giant stone fireplace, it wasnt a very big cottage. A roaring fire was pretty and a little warm.
Once it died down to a giant pile of coals, it kicked out heat into the room.

But then again, it was so big you could almost stand in the dang thing. we used to burn pallets cut in half so the gut of it had to be at least 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep or more.

It was freakishly huge for the size of the house.... but I think that was the idea, it had to be to heat the place. (very very very old house, they knew what they were doin' I imagine)

I have no idea how anyone gets heat from a "normal" modern sized fireplace.

 

[firefighterjake]

Well what more can I say, but to reiterate . . . fireplaces are pretty to look at with the pretty fire . . . but an insert or free standing woodstove with large glass window offers both meaningful heat and a pretty fire to look at . . . if you truly want to get away from oil, consider an insert or woodstove.