Hi, we've been shopping for a wood-burning insert to replace our old Lopi - that thread also contains details about our house and climate. We like wood fires.
But we've been running into a roadblock. Here in WA state, most jurisdictions won't allow a wood-fuel appliance without a dedicated fresh air supply. Because of the location of our chimney, this means dealers want to install a 'barometric damper' in our living room wall to meet code - basically a 4 inch hole w/ a flapper valve. We don't want a hole in our wall, especially since we just air sealed and added insulation to our house.
So we're thinking about gas as a plan B. We've heard we can "direct vent" it. AFAIK that means we can both send exhaust up and fresh air down the existing chimney. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and let me know if that's a problematic setup. Like how do they keep the exhaust (& CO) from coming back down the intake pipe?
Beyond that we have a couple of questions, since we're very new to thinking about the gas option.
1) What types of gas units work best in a power outage? That's one thing that's important to us. We want something that can heat our house somewhat during an outage when we can't run our central heat. (We live near Seattle, 1900 SF well-insulated single-story house). We know gas fireplaces can still operate in an outage, but the fans don't run, right? Same is true w/ a wood insert, but many models stick out of the hearth a bit and you get a decent amount of radiant heat. Every gas fireplace I've seen is flush. So with a flush gas insert, do you get much real heat out of it when the fan isn't running, or does most of it go up the chimney? Are there some designs that radiate better than others?
2) What's the comparative cost of gas vs wood insert? We were looking at around $3.5K for a good-but-not-luxurious wood insert, including installation. What's a rough ballpark of how much more or less would we expect to pay for a gas fireplace, including direct vent installation, given the above priorities?
Thanks very much!
But we've been running into a roadblock. Here in WA state, most jurisdictions won't allow a wood-fuel appliance without a dedicated fresh air supply. Because of the location of our chimney, this means dealers want to install a 'barometric damper' in our living room wall to meet code - basically a 4 inch hole w/ a flapper valve. We don't want a hole in our wall, especially since we just air sealed and added insulation to our house.
So we're thinking about gas as a plan B. We've heard we can "direct vent" it. AFAIK that means we can both send exhaust up and fresh air down the existing chimney. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and let me know if that's a problematic setup. Like how do they keep the exhaust (& CO) from coming back down the intake pipe?
Beyond that we have a couple of questions, since we're very new to thinking about the gas option.
1) What types of gas units work best in a power outage? That's one thing that's important to us. We want something that can heat our house somewhat during an outage when we can't run our central heat. (We live near Seattle, 1900 SF well-insulated single-story house). We know gas fireplaces can still operate in an outage, but the fans don't run, right? Same is true w/ a wood insert, but many models stick out of the hearth a bit and you get a decent amount of radiant heat. Every gas fireplace I've seen is flush. So with a flush gas insert, do you get much real heat out of it when the fan isn't running, or does most of it go up the chimney? Are there some designs that radiate better than others?
2) What's the comparative cost of gas vs wood insert? We were looking at around $3.5K for a good-but-not-luxurious wood insert, including installation. What's a rough ballpark of how much more or less would we expect to pay for a gas fireplace, including direct vent installation, given the above priorities?
Thanks very much!
