- Nov 27, 2012
- 0
Question:
I just bought a home with a Fire Place. It is a Majestic model BC42, by Vermont Castings. It is a 0 clearance type with air circulating through the back of the unit and louvers on the front bottom and top.
Currently, there is no glass door, outside air intake, or blower.
I have contacted the dealer and the manufacture to get efficiency information and they say they do not have it.
From your experience, would you have any idea (even a guess) on what the efficiency might be?
Also any idea what it could be if I added glass doors, a blower, and an outside air intake to the fireplace.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Answer:
Your Majestic BC42 Circulating Fireplace would probably be around 25% efficient based on its design-----a little higher than a standard masonry fireplace which is typically 15%.
With an open front, you will lose heated room air whenever the damper is open. You need to get glass doors to prevent this. And, a blower would help aid in moving heated air away from the fireplace. I'm familiar with the blower installation and it's very easy providing that electricity has already been brought into the fireplace "can." Let's hope. Outside air? Don't waste your time. If it wasn't done during the actual installation, it's not worth trying to do this unless you have easy & total access.
Doing these two things would boost the efficiency to the high 30% range. This is based on the projection of Majestic Engineers in Indiana. You contacted Toronto, the home base of CFM Majestic. Although I typically refrain from saying that they don't know very much, in this case I'll defend them because I don't believe I've ever seen anything in writing.
I just bought a home with a Fire Place. It is a Majestic model BC42, by Vermont Castings. It is a 0 clearance type with air circulating through the back of the unit and louvers on the front bottom and top.
Currently, there is no glass door, outside air intake, or blower.
I have contacted the dealer and the manufacture to get efficiency information and they say they do not have it.
From your experience, would you have any idea (even a guess) on what the efficiency might be?
Also any idea what it could be if I added glass doors, a blower, and an outside air intake to the fireplace.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Answer:
Your Majestic BC42 Circulating Fireplace would probably be around 25% efficient based on its design-----a little higher than a standard masonry fireplace which is typically 15%.
With an open front, you will lose heated room air whenever the damper is open. You need to get glass doors to prevent this. And, a blower would help aid in moving heated air away from the fireplace. I'm familiar with the blower installation and it's very easy providing that electricity has already been brought into the fireplace "can." Let's hope. Outside air? Don't waste your time. If it wasn't done during the actual installation, it's not worth trying to do this unless you have easy & total access.
Doing these two things would boost the efficiency to the high 30% range. This is based on the projection of Majestic Engineers in Indiana. You contacted Toronto, the home base of CFM Majestic. Although I typically refrain from saying that they don't know very much, in this case I'll defend them because I don't believe I've ever seen anything in writing.
