adding wood burning inserts to heat n glo em42 and a heat n glo cfb i think

[crashmymax]

I have moved to a new home that is about 4100 sq ft. Electricity is very expensive and it is an all electric home with 2 heat n glo fireplaces. They are not very efficient and do not add much heat to my home. They cant burn more then and hour or so without needing to add more wood. Pine in my case. So trying to keep them burning is not realistic. From the research ive done it seems like a good wood burning insert would be a good option for me. My concerns would be that my fireplaces are framed with and surrounded by wood. Im a little nervous about putting in an insert. I have very few local options but did have a guy out who recommended i put in a regency CI2600 in my upstairs fire place that has the heat n glo em42. I have started some demo on the basement fireplace also heat n glo see through fireplace and thats when i discovered that it sits directly on plywood and has 2x4 and plywood framing all around it. I assume the upstairs is roughly the same but i will not be doing any modifications to it. How do i know if an insert will be safe enough? Are there any other options i should consider? I am new to the forum and fireplaces and need some good advice on what to do. The inserts are not cheap and i want to make the best decision. The upstairs has large vaulted ceiling with a third level with three bedrooms this is the area I need the most help heating. I will attache a couple pics most of the basement fireplace since Im demoing the old wood storage area and you can see more of how its is built. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bholler]

I have moved to a new home that is about 4100 sq ft. Electricity is very expensive and it is an all electric home with 2 heat n glo fireplaces. They are not very efficient and do not add much heat to my home. They cant burn more then and hour or so without needing to add more wood. Pine in my case. So trying to keep them burning is not realistic. From the research ive done it seems like a good wood burning insert would be a good option for me. My concerns would be that my fireplaces are framed with and surrounded by wood. Im a little nervous about putting in an insert. I have very few local options but did have a guy out who recommended i put in a regency CI2600 in my upstairs fire place that has the heat n glo em42. I have started some demo on the basement fireplace also heat n glo see through fireplace and thats when i discovered that it sits directly on plywood and has 2x4 and plywood framing all around it. I assume the upstairs is roughly the same but i will not be doing any modifications to it. How do i know if an insert will be safe enough? Are there any other options i should consider? I am new to the forum and fireplaces and need some good advice on what to do. The inserts are not cheap and i want to make the best decision. The upstairs has large vaulted ceiling with a third level with three bedrooms this is the area I need the most help heating. I will attache a couple pics most of the basement fireplace since Im demoing the old wood storage area and you can see more of how its is built. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.
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The manual for your fireplaces does not allow for the installation of an insert. So you cant do it.

 

[crashmymax]

Well that blows. This is why I wanted more opinions. The local installer said no problem. What would be some more options for me? I'm half tempted to build some type of support for the upstairs fireplace and remove the basement fireplace altogether and add a stove there but I don't think I could get enough of the heat upstairs. Any ideas of what could work for me? Thanks

 

[bholler]

Well that blows. This is why I wanted more opinions. The local installer said no problem. What would be some more options for me? I'm half tempted to build some type of support for the upstairs fireplace and remove the basement fireplace altogether and add a stove there but I don't think I could get enough of the heat upstairs. Any ideas of what could work for me? Thanks

Yeah many installers dont seem to care if the fireplace allows inserts or not. But to be to code you need to follow all manufacturers instructions for ul listed appliances.

As far as options a stove at some other location would probably be the cheapest and easiest.

 

[crashmymax]

I spoke with another install for my situation and he confirmed that a few years ago they became more strict about installing inserts. He new exactly what type of fireplace I had and said it was because of the tubes inside are not allowed to be cut to add the insert. He said my only option was to put another fireplace in and will still be a lot more efficient then what I have but I would have to replace the chimney you cant use a steel liner like you can with the inserts and it will be very expensive to do so. Then he remembered the quadra-fire 7100 wood fireplace the would use the same chimney as my heat n glo. He said it is a good fireplace that has decent burn times with pine like around 6 hours. Does anyone have any experience with this model? How can it use the same chimney if its producing way more heat? I really don't want to invest this kind of money if it will not be able to make a significant difference in my electric bill. So looking for real world experience. The quadra-fire 7100 seems like my best option as far as not changing the chimney but would require me to get into brick work. Any help with my questions is appreciated. Thanks.