flue question

[stef]

We recently moved into a home with a wood burning fireplace. The flue is extremely difficult to open and close. Because of this my husband plans to keep it open all winter and just keep the glass doors closed when the fireplace isn't in use. I'm worried this isn't enough to keep the heat from escaping our home, therefore causing our heating bills to increase. Can you tell me who is right?
Thank you.

 

[NH_Wood]

I have the same setup for my fireplace. You'll lose heat up the flue. When my fire is down to coals, I close the glass doors to keep the room heat in (most of the room heat), then shut the flue once the coals are gone. But....there is enough air getting past the doors to burn the coals......so air gets through. This, of course, is when the draft is the strongest, but, you'll likely always have some draft pulling warm air from within the building. So......I'd say you are right on and hubby's out. Now....how much of a different in heating bill with the flue left open? No idea and I'll never find out! Cheers!

 

[BrotherBart]

There isn't a right answer that anybody here can give you without being there to look at the setup. Try it both ways with no fire in the fireplace and use an incense stick and pass it around the seams in the damper and then the glass doors to see how much leakage into the fireplace you have.

 

[Battenkiller]

The doors should prevent most of the heat from entering the chimney. Without a fire in there, you won't get a real strong pull. You can always make one of those sand-filled door socks (draft dodger?) to stick in front of the inlet holes.

We left ours like that for an entire season after a Christmas Eve fire and never noticed any extra draft in the room. We didn't find out until the next Christmas Eve.

 

[LLigetfa]

If you can't fix the flue damper and you don't burn very frequently, you could install an inflatable damper.

http://www.chimneyballoon.us/chimneyballoon.html
http://www.chimneyballoon.us/i//ChimneyBalloonLarge.jpg