Majestic's Royal Warm Majic and Monarch Balanced-Flue Fireplace - Please Read

[mwilliams]

Hello everyone,
I am building a new, very energy efficient home in the northern IL area and am looking for a fireplace to install in a 20x35' room. Natural gas is quite cheap in our area so I am not really willing to pay great sums of money for a true high efficient unit (BIS, FXE, etc), so I was looking at two options:

1. Majestic's Royal Warm Majic. I know it's not a high E unit, but it has an adjustable damper and a pretty good heat circulating fan. It also has a nice 42" opening. Rated 20% energy efficient. Approx $1800 for fireplace alone.

2. Majestic's Monarch Pure Energy Fireplace. Very similar to #1 but the doors on this unit are ceramic glass and can close completely preventing inside air from escaping up the chimney. Strangely though this unit does NOT have an adjustable flue and is NOT considered high-efficiency. Rated 50% energy efficient (also does not have a catalytic combuster) Approx $2800 for fireplace alone.

So a few questions for the experts out there:
1. any experience good or bad with either of these units?
2. given the close price, is it a "no-brainer" to go with the Monarch since it will be more energy efficient?
3. given the fact that the house is very tight, would either of these units be a better fit for the home? II had heard from one of the store in my area that high efficient units are not good for tight homes because they can create negative pressure / back drafting in the home. Not sure how true this is?

Any other insights and recommendations are greatly appreciated. Sorry for the lengthy questions.

Regards,
Marc

 

[jtp10181]

Putting an open wood burner into an air tight energy efficient home is like cutting a big hole in the wall. Whoever told you the higher efficiency units would create a neg pressure is an idiot, or maybe you heard wrong. The open faced unit sucking tons of your heated room out up the chimney is much more likely to create a neg pressure in the house. The higher efficiency units use pull much less air out of the house, thus a far far less change for neg pressure.

 

[SlyFerret]

You're going to want to go with an EPA fireplace (works like a stove insert, only its made to be installed directly into the opening instead of requiring an existing fireplace).

Putting in one of those units like the Warm Majic are going to suck heat out of your house like you won't believe.

I've got one of the Warm Majic 42" fireplaces. It heats the room it's in pretty well, but the furnace runs A LOT when it's on. It sucks cold air into the house to make up for the large quantity of air going up the flue. The outside air kit helps some, but not much. If you can't get enough makeup air into the house through cracks around doors, windows, through bathroom vents, etc..., it's going to put smoke into the room.

-SF

 

[SlyFerret]

I just looked at the manual for the Monarch Pure Energy unit (BFC36, if I looked up the right unit).

It looks like a pretty nice unit. It would solve the complaints that I have about my WMC42, and could be a viable option for you if you're more interested in the fireplace for the "cozy factor" and occasional supplemental heat.

If you're interested in a real alternate heat source, the EPA fireplaces are still the way to go.

-SF

 

[begreen]

It is only a matter of time before "cheap" gas is no longer cheap. And that likey will be before the mortgage is paid. Building with close attention towards energy efficiency is money in the bank. As fuel costs rise, your return on investment also rises. Setting up the house with practical ceiling heights, very high efficiency windows, extra insulation (including crawlspace, slab or basement) will benefit the lifetime of the house. Likewise with the fireplace. Keep looking at the good units, you want something of beauty that is more than skin deep.

Get a good heater from BIS, Kozy Heat, FPX, etc.. You'll be glad you did in the long run. And don't worry about the negative pressure issue. Correctly installed, the fireplace will have an outside air kit that directly supplies the combustion air. Read up here in the forum about the various brands' user experiences. There have been several good dialogs about this type of heater.