I rushed into an uneducated decision

[woodslinger]

I thought a fireplace was a fireplace. Boy was I wrong!! I went to a specialty retailer and told them what I wanted. I wanted to heat a room and lower my heating bill a bit. They suggested a unit and my wife got all the pretties she wanted like a mantle, marble hearth, etc. I felt good about my purchase and was excited about burning wood. I get home and begin researching various items on wood burning. As I look around, (which is how I found this great place) I start to find out that the fireplace I have purchased is more decorative than it is functional, which I was not happy about. Plus I find that the manufacturer of the fireplace filed for chapter 11 six months ago....great fun. I call the specialty store and tell them all this and ask what can I do. Well the marble has been cut, the mantle ordered and it won't fit a more functional unit.....son of a @#$^. The store assures me that the unit will heat the room. I ask about its efficiency (I didn't even know to ask that previously) and it is around 50% (not good). They will install a cold air kit which will not take heated air from the house but from outside. I am just disappointed with myself that I was not better educated nor that the store gave me the full story. sorry for the rambling but I had to get it off my chest
any suggestions though!

 

[Nofossil]

Fireplaces may not be the most efficient way to provide heat, but a cold air inlet helps.

Can't beat the luxury of stretching out in front of a nice fire, though. A boiler may be really efficient, but it just doesn't have the ambiance. My lovely wife has yet to suggest that we stretch out with a glass of wine in front of the boiler :-(

 

[Duetech]

There are air handling options via insert blowers that may boost heat output so less of it goes up the chimney and hopefully you already have that option. If you have or know any Amish in your area you might check with them as in my area they seem to heat with wood exclusively. In a cold weather power outage that fireplace may compel your wife and you to cozy up in front of it and forget it's less than high level efficiency. It sounds like a nice unit but if it is not what you want you might be able to sell it for a partial recoup of your finances, before you have to go through the expense of installation, and switch to something more efficient. A belated welcome to the forum. I found this forum about a hear and a half after I bought a wood gasification boiler and though I didn't get the same wake up call as you did I too have found how I could have done things differently. Wish you the best...

 

[taxidermist]

Fireplaces may not be the most efficient way to provide heat, but a cold air inlet helps.

Can't beat the luxury of stretching out in front of a nice fire, though. A boiler may be really efficient, but it just doesn't have the ambiance. My lovely wife has yet to suggest that we stretch out with a glass of wine in front of the boiler :-(

Some days my wife wants to strech me out in front of our boiler .........and beat me with some kindling!

 

[ssupercoolss]

like cave said, the outside air and a blower grate thing will bring up your efficiency some, to the point you might be content with it. i have a prefab fireplace in my mountain house that does actually heat my house. i custom fabbed a grate with a blower that kicks out heat at about 250 degrees with a nice fire going. i know fireplaces are not supposed to work. i have turned off all the heat in the house to confirm that im not just sucking my heated air from another room up the flue. i know the efficiency is not real high, but you have to have the fire going in a mountain house, right? dont ask me why mine works when most people say they dont. i think it has something to do with the fact my draft is not real strong. i have to mess with it alot to keep a nice fire in it.

 

[Blevesque]

Fireplaces may not be the most efficient way to provide heat, but a cold air inlet helps.

Can't beat the luxury of stretching out in front of a nice fire, though. A boiler may be really efficient, but it just doesn't have the ambiance. My lovely wife has yet to suggest that we stretch out with a glass of wine in front of the boiler :-(

Nofossil if you make that happen you truly are the man!

 

[Piker]

Own a fireplace that I built myself. All handcut sand stone. My father was a stone mason for 60 years and taught me the trade when I was very young.

I used a Heatilator brand metal insert. Pretty simple... just some heat exchange tubes and some strategically placed air flow. It works well, and like mentioned before, is great for power outages. No, it's not even close to being as efficient as the gasifier in the basement, but I absolutely love it. It can heat about half the house by itself... only drawback is I have to fuel the fire about every 3 hours. It's great for when we have company to set the mood.

I wouldn't be too down about your decision... if you don't have expectations of removing all dependence on fossil fuels, you should still be able to save a few dollars on your heat bill... plus enjoy the ambience as stated earlier.

cheers

 

[leaddog]

Another option is to install a pellet insert. I put in a pellet insert into my fireplace 10yrs ago and love it. Before my house would cool off when I tried to burn but with the insert I can get alot of heat AND get that nice glow and fire look. I don't burn it much but when it is really cold out and if it is windy it makes the living room alot more inviting. And yes the wife does like to make me lie down next to it so she can get warm.
leaddog

 

[willworkforwood]

The reply from Piker was interesting because it ties into our experience in the December Ice storm outage. I always thought of the fireplace as an outage backup. It was done by a master mason - not close to what Piker built, but still very efficient. Well on Saturday nite of the Ice storm it went down to 5, and the far upstairs of our 2500 sf house was just barely hanging on - around 35. So now I know that 0 or below for a couple of days in a row is not going to work. Plus we had to huddle in family room in front of the fire because everywhere else was below 50. Feeding the fire (with my boiler firewood) every hour or so also was a tad bit irritating.
And, with Nofossils great comment in mind, my wife did not want to lie in front of the fire even once after that week, or even want the fireplace on for that matter! And lastly, for Woodslinger - I wandered onto this site a year ago. Had I not done that, it might have been me writing your story. I feel for you, and hope things work out ok.

 

[muleman51]

Taxidermist, You're lucky my wife agrees with your wife but my wife wants to use a log!!