how hot should this gas fireplace heat my house?

[treereenee]

Hi everyone. First-time poster here. I have a question about this gas fireplace we are using in our (rented) house.

It is really big, with a window on each side, and it is the only heater in the house so I'm guessing it should be doing a better job. We set the thermostat at 65 and it can't even keep the house at 55, even staying on continuously.

There is a long metal pipe that vents the exhaust, which goes up through the ceiling. The glass panels are sealed and do not open. When you turn it on, the fire starts up, and after a while, some fans kick in. I don't know exactly what these fans are supposed to be doing - they sure don't blow out hot air though! You can't really feel the heat from it at all unless you are standing right in front of it. The glass gets very hot (hot enough to burn you if you touch it) and so does the metal pipe. But our house stays cold.

I'm sure it's costing me a fortune to use this thing (it's the first time since we moved in that it's gotten cold enough to use it continuously, so I'm not sure), so I would like to make sure it's living up to its potential. Should the blower make a "breeze" you can actually feel? Are there other ways of distributing the heat?

 

[treereenee]

no, we don't have one... what do you use it for? (sorry for the noob questions, we just moved from southern CA where we never had to worry about this stuff).

 

[R&D Guy]

Well that's too bad. If you are burning it 24-7 and your house is 55° then I'd go out and buy a electric space heater. I'd open the bottom grill and make sure the valve isn't on low, and there should be a fan speed control under there too. Make sure the fan is on high. There should also be a builder plate in this area with make/model and BTU info. Let us know what it is.

I like the idea of pointing a fan at the glass. I've also taken the grills off of a fireplace at a friends house when the power was out for days. It should generate a little more heat without the grills, but it's rather Ghetto IMO.