Insert, Stove, or Fireplace?

[amroeske]

My husband and I live in an a tudor-style house built in 1926. The fireplace is a disaster and not safe for fires. We love the sound, smell and warmth of a wood fire but need some input as to whether we should install a retrofit masonry fireplace, wood stove or wood insert. There are only two companies that I know of in our area that can install these products and both will install a chimney liner. Our existing fireplace is 29" wide by 29" tall by 19" deep. We've narrowed it down to the following based on attractiveness, hearth.com reviews and what local dealers have available:
Jotul 450 insert
Jotul F 3 CB stove
Bellfires retrofit fireplace

Vermont Castings is available through one dealer but based on what I've read I'm nervous about the quality of the stoves as well as the longevity of the company.

I'm a little wary about the insert because there is no outlet near the fireplace to run the blower, plus I'm not convinced that I'd like to see a power cord running from the fireplace to the wall even if we ran a new outlet nearby. A wood stove wouldn't need an outlet BUT would burn smaller logs. The retrofit fireplace would burn larger logs and not require an outlet, but is less efficient than the stove or the insert.

Here's another wrench in the cog- our house is shotgun-style (long and narrow) and the fireplace is located on the front wall of the house in the living-room, which is 15' by 15' with 10' ceilings. The next room down is the dining room which is about the same size. I don't want to be run out of the living room by a hot stove, but would love to wake up to a warm living room in the morning. Although Dallas doesn't get the cold winters most of the posters on this site experience, we do have a fair share of cold days and during the winter we like to run the heater as little as possible and almost always turn it off at night.

Any opinions out there? We're not looking to heat the whole house and certainly don't want to over-heat our living room, but would love the ambiance of a wood fire as well as the satisfaction of energy-efficiency.

Many thanks,

Ann

 

[BJ64]

I will guess you would be most happy with the insert.

As for power to the insert's blower, they can hide almost any trace of power going to it. Drilling through brick and rock to stuff the wires is child's play with the tools available now. Power to the blower would be located behind the face plates with the switch being put whereever you want. The installers will know who to call after they understand what you want.

 

[boostnut]

"We love the sound, smell and warmth of a wood fire" <--- This could be an issue if you decide on a Jotul insert.

Unfortunately they are not designed to be operated with the doors open so you can forget the sound and smell thing, not gonna happen. I do like mine but also use it as a primary source of heat, not for the ambiance. Keep shopping around, there are plenty of stoves and inserts out there that can be operated with door open and a screen in place.

 

[amroeske]

Thanks for the replies! The screen option was why we were looking at the Jotul F 3 CB stove. It seems to have everything we're looking for, but I've read conflicting stories about installing one inside the fireplace. Do you know of any attractive inserts that can use a screen? Are we nuts for considering a rumford-style retrofit? My husband thinks what we need is radiant heat, which if I'm not mistaken is primarily what the rumford retrofit and the stoves provide. A blower wouldn't work if the power goes out (which happens frequently) and gives convective heat instead of radiant. My husband claims that the convective heat will just heat the air in the room which will rise to the ceiling, whereas the radiant heat will warm the objects in the room, including us and our heat-seeking dachshunds. So given all of this, here are three more questions:

Will an insert radiate heat or does it absolutely require a blower to convect heat?

Will a stove radiate heat if it's placed inside a fireplace?

Does anybody have any experience with efficient retrofit fireplaces?