need help with large open fireplace

[Rawhide]

My precautions had chimney inspected and chimney cap replaced.

The opening on my fireplace is 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall and it has a gas fire starter made in

When i get a fire going all the hot air goes up the chimney and it pulls cold air in from outside. I guess i am doing something wrong because people have used this kind of fireplace to heat their houses forever, but it seems to be better to cover the fireplace in plastic and use space heaters.

if anyone could offer advice i would appreciate it

 

[bholler]

Yeah open fireplaces are not good heaters at all that is why people started making stoves. There are a few things you can do to help a little but you will never turn an open fireplace into an effective heater. And when houses were heated with fireplaces they were pretty cold to get warm you would need to stand in front of the fire to get some radiant heat.

 

[begreen]

You can heat the room or area with the fireplace, but it will take a lot of wood and continuous feeding to do it. In the meantime it is sucking room air out of the rest of the house at a rate of up to 500cfm! If you want good heat and a lot less wood consumption, consider installing a nice woodburning insert into the fireplace.

 

[Simonkenton]

You will get 10 times the heat with a wood stove, using 1/5 as much wood.
The number one thing you can do to improve the performance of your fireplace is to install an outside air intake. You need to establish a hole in the outside wall in the crawl space,or basement. You could use one of the existing vents.
You need to make a hole in the floor in front of, or next to, the fireplace. Put a grill in there, and connect the two openings with duct pipe.
A fireplace uses 10 times as much air as a wood stove and if you do not have an exterior air intake, it will suck all the heat right up the chimney.

 

[bholler]

An outside air intake can help a little but you would need a huge vent in order to put enough air there to make any difference. Most i see are just 4" pipe and that just is not enough air to make any difference at all.

 

[Simonkenton]

Yes, you need a huge vent. The vent in my floor is 6 inches by 14 inches. For air intake, I removed one of the concrete blocks in the foundation, so that hole is 8 inches by 16 inches.
This was a retro fit. When I built the fireplace, I had an outside air intake that was 5 inches by 5 inches. That did not get the job done.
Now, with the 6 x 14, plus the 5 x 5, the problem is solved! My fireplace opening is 42 inches wide and 38 inches high.