- Sep 16, 2012
- 13
Hello hearth.com community. My wife and I are having our first house built. We live on Long Island, and the house is going to be around 1550 square feet, all on 1 floor. We're getting a wood-burning fireplace, which was a $5,500 upgrade. I hadn't really researched it yet at the time, but now that it's time to start picking out the stone and stuff, I've been looking into it.
I think the standard fireplace it comes with is a zero clearance prefab, a 36" Majestic Royalton BR36, or something similar. I knew fireplaces weren't very efficient in general compared to wood-burning stoves, but after some research, it looks like this setup would be purely decorative, and might even suck warm air out of the house. Atmosphere and ambiance is important to us, but for $5,500 I was really hoping it would also work as a backup heat source in a power outage. Bringing our oil bill down would also be nice. Am I correct in assuming that this sort of fireplace is essentially useless for heating?
We like the look of a fireplace, and want to be able to see the flames. Having the option to sometimes have an open flame (no glass) would be nice too. We also want to put our TV above the mantle, which wouldn't really work with a conventional wood-burning stove.
I've been considering paying out of pocket for an upgrade to the basic fireplace it comes with. I have researched a few efficient EPA II certified fireplaces and have some questions. I looked at the Lennox Brentwood, Lennox Montecito, and Lennox Montecito Estate. These seem great because they are very efficient and have an ambiance very similar to that of a traditional fireplace. My only concern is that they seem to use an electric blower. In addition to probably being noisy, it also won't work in a power outage. I don't want to have to depend on a generator or battery system. If the blower is off, how is the efficiency affected? Without the blower, would these still be more efficient than the Majestic Royalton? Would they work to heat the house in a power outage?
I also looked at the Majestic Sovereign, which seems to be similar to the basic Royalton, but with a tapered firebox, which is supposed increase efficiency a bit. How would this compare to the Royalton and to the EPA certified fireplaces without the blower?
There's a company called Fuego Flame that makes a zero clearance fireplace that's supposed to be extremely efficient without using a blower. The company claims it uses "natural convection" to direct the heat away from the chimney and into the room.
(broken link removed to http://www.fuegoflame.com/Products_zero_c.htm)
That sounds perfect, but I can't find much information on the company or product, and they don't have any dealers near me. Does anyone know if these Fuego fireplaces are any good or do what they claim?
Are there any other products that I'm missing that would do what I want? My budget is also limited. I can't find prices on a lot of the items I mentioned. Does anyone know approximately how much more the builder will charge me for each of these items over the $5,500 I already paid? Thanks in advance.
I think the standard fireplace it comes with is a zero clearance prefab, a 36" Majestic Royalton BR36, or something similar. I knew fireplaces weren't very efficient in general compared to wood-burning stoves, but after some research, it looks like this setup would be purely decorative, and might even suck warm air out of the house. Atmosphere and ambiance is important to us, but for $5,500 I was really hoping it would also work as a backup heat source in a power outage. Bringing our oil bill down would also be nice. Am I correct in assuming that this sort of fireplace is essentially useless for heating?
We like the look of a fireplace, and want to be able to see the flames. Having the option to sometimes have an open flame (no glass) would be nice too. We also want to put our TV above the mantle, which wouldn't really work with a conventional wood-burning stove.
I've been considering paying out of pocket for an upgrade to the basic fireplace it comes with. I have researched a few efficient EPA II certified fireplaces and have some questions. I looked at the Lennox Brentwood, Lennox Montecito, and Lennox Montecito Estate. These seem great because they are very efficient and have an ambiance very similar to that of a traditional fireplace. My only concern is that they seem to use an electric blower. In addition to probably being noisy, it also won't work in a power outage. I don't want to have to depend on a generator or battery system. If the blower is off, how is the efficiency affected? Without the blower, would these still be more efficient than the Majestic Royalton? Would they work to heat the house in a power outage?
I also looked at the Majestic Sovereign, which seems to be similar to the basic Royalton, but with a tapered firebox, which is supposed increase efficiency a bit. How would this compare to the Royalton and to the EPA certified fireplaces without the blower?
There's a company called Fuego Flame that makes a zero clearance fireplace that's supposed to be extremely efficient without using a blower. The company claims it uses "natural convection" to direct the heat away from the chimney and into the room.
(broken link removed to http://www.fuegoflame.com/Products_zero_c.htm)
That sounds perfect, but I can't find much information on the company or product, and they don't have any dealers near me. Does anyone know if these Fuego fireplaces are any good or do what they claim?
Are there any other products that I'm missing that would do what I want? My budget is also limited. I can't find prices on a lot of the items I mentioned. Does anyone know approximately how much more the builder will charge me for each of these items over the $5,500 I already paid? Thanks in advance.