First home, fireplace advice needed

[Cold1313]

Howdy everyone. First post on the forums, I hope that I'm in the correct section.

I just purchased my first home this past spring and now that winter is here, I gave my fireplace a try (twice now actually). I have a standard brick fireplace, ash pit in the basement, etc. I did have a chimney sweep come out and clean it before I used it. He said it was in great shape, except for the smoke chamber had glazed creo soot on it. He wasn't able to remove that and said it would take another service call and it might not all come off. He said I could go without issues, or it could catch. CYA on his part, I got his message. How we believed this happened, we believe the previous owners had a separate wood stove and just vented it into the chimney where it glazed in the smoke chamber. (I believe this, because they left all of that behind in the garage).

Onto my reason for posting. The fireplace does not have a blower or anything like that, so if anything, it just seems to make the house colder. I went to the local shop where I get wood pellets and experienced a bit of sticker shock on wood burning inserts. What would be really nice is a wood pellet insert, but holy cow that is some big bucks. As a new home owner, I have other priorities than to spend $3,000+ on a pellet insert. I currently only have heat with propane and forced air. I will likely upgrade to geothermal over the next few years, so I do not see the fireplace being used a ton, or being the man source of heat for the home.

So, is there anything I can do, to get more heat out of my fireplace when I do have a fire? The fire is nice to watch, but it sure doesn't warm up the room, I can just feel the cold air getting pulled from other parts of the house. I was unsure if there was a cheaper alternative to an insert?

 

[fossil]

Nothing that I know of that will please you. Sorry.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah an open fireplace is never gonna get it done. For a couple of grand you could buy an Englander 25-EP bay window pellet insert and maybe four hundred to line the chimney if you do it yourself. If you are buying pellets at that shop, whadda ya doing with'em?

Over in the pellet room the folks there can give you the lowdown on available pellet options.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Welcome to H.com. Not sure I can offer anything in the direction your looking. A fireplace will do little but add some aesthetic appeal to the room that it's in, you will get little useful heat out of it, a majority of it it going out the stack. It looks good while your using it, makes the room feel warmer from the idea of it but to truly heat that room usefully without wasting the fuel a woodstove insert, or free standing stove would have to be installed. I'm not sure of pellets, can't say I have ever seen one in a fireplace before.
And since you have already made up your mind on how you will heat your home using geothermal, it's almost a waste of money to invest in the fireplace unless you have thoughts of using both to decrease your heating costs.

 

[KaptJaq]

Basically fossil is right. Without some expense it is hard to get an open fireplace more efficient...

Here is a brief article that compares the less expensive alternatives:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/improve-your-fireplace-efficiency.aspx#axzz2mHCWg26G

If I were you I would try to find a used insert. I prefer cord-wood to pellets but either would be more efficient than an open fireplace.

KaptJaq

 

[Cold1313]

Yeah an open fireplace is never gonna get it done. For a couple of grand you could buy an Englander 25-EP bay window pellet insert and maybe four hundred to line the chimney if you do it yourself. If you are buying pellets at that shop, whadda ya doing with'em?

Over in the pellet room the folks there can give you the lowdown on available pellet options.

I've got a plane jane pellet stove from TSC for the barn when I need to work out there. Usually on someones car. My grandfather also has one in his basement that he uses to heat up his place. I kind of figured an insert would be the only option.

 

[BrotherBart]

The EP is a pretty nice machine and the pellet guys can steer you to the best deal on one and install considerations. A good bunch and they live and breathe pellet stoves.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

$1000 will get you a wood insert at Menards. May not be as fancy or as good as higher priced and better quality inserts but it'll get the job done way cheaper.

 

[BrotherBart]

$1000 will get you a wood insert at Menards. May not be as fancy or as good as higher priced and better quality inserts but it'll get the job done way cheaper.

And then you have the liner.... And dry wood...

 

[Cold1313]

And then you have the liner.... And dry wood...

Right! I can get wood from my neighbor for free, I just get to do all of the work. But I think for as little as I would use it, maybe a pellet would be better. But either way, I guess it'll be a decent sized investment for an insert and that will probably have to go on hold for awhile

 

[Paul L]

It's a standard response around here that you don't get useful heat out of an open fireplace and all else being equal that is generally true. But, if you're willing to load your fireplace with a LOT of wood and be around to reload it every hour you can certainly get a lot of heat out of it. It is not efficient but it will work, particularly if you will only be burning ocassionally.

 

[Cynnergy]

My parents put glass doors on their fireplace, and that did help a bit, but the glass always gets smoked up and it wasn't cheap.

Didn't one of the members here line their fireplace with soapstone? Not sure how much that would cost either.

I might try to experiment with trying to use your fireplace as a masonry heater - the aim would be to get the bricks in the chimney warmed up rather than heat from a fire. My parents have a stone chimney and it puts out a lot of heat for a while after they've had fires in it. But we're in a mild climate so that might not work so well in other places.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Yeah you have 2 good choices at this point, buy a used cheap insert, that's what I say to do, or just seal it up completely from the top and bottom. At least with the first choice, you will be able to heat that space.... Work out a deal, make a trade, better than not doing anything....

 

[Cold1313]

Yeah you have 2 good choices at this point, buy a used cheap insert, that's what I say to do, or just seal it up completely from the top and bottom. At least with the first choice, you will be able to heat that space.... Work out a deal, make a trade, better than not doing anything....

I guess I wasn't aware of the used market. I'll have to jump over to the pellet section and see what they have

 

[begreen]

Most of the heat produced by the fireplace is negated by the sucking of warm air out of the room as the fire dies out and the fireplace cools down.

 

[Redlegs]

Cold1313, I have a geothermal system. Here in Eastern Kansas it works well for AC until the temps get over 100 for more than a couple of days, and it heats OK until the temps get into the lower forties. To back up my GEO, the previous owners put a wood burning insert in the basement fireplace. It was an older non-EPA stove and I went though a ton of woodat first , but I could leave the GEO off most all winter. Mind you, if we didnt burn wood, the heating bills for for runnning off the GEO alone were around $400 a month, and the perviuos owners who were a little older and liked it warm had bills near $600 in cold months. My experience is that GEO systems are ok for mild weather, but extream heat or cold is a really challenge for GEO system. To fix my problem about winter heating I wanted a modern woodburning insert with a strong blower, so I ended up choosing an Osburn 2400. It throws a ton of heat and we almost never have to use the GEO now. I did the install with the help of a couple buddies and advice form this forum. In truth it was not really all that complicated. I have friends with pellet stoves, and they rave at how much more heat my wood inserts put out. If you are seriuos about the GEO (which is a huge investment), I would recommned exploring a complimntary/backup heating source like a wood stove/insert in advance. The Osburn had a good cost to heat capibility ratio for my application, but there are plenty of other good stove builders out there. Take your time, save up if you have too, & continue expolring options. Consider looking at the wood heat issue not as a band-aid or stop-gap measure, but rather see it as an enduring, value-added, whole home appliance ...an investment.