New guy here, been doing lots of reading on this site and have a couple of questions. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
A little background info: We bought a new house that has an insert and it's finally gotten cold enough to use it. I don't know what brand it is and I'm not really sure were to look to found out. It has solid doors and a blower. My problem is I can't seem to get the room above 70 degrees. The room is 19'x14' with a vaulted ceiling that is 12' high. across from the insert is a 6' wide opening to the next room that is 17'x13'. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, not being able to see what the fire is doing because I don't have glass doors is driving me crazy. I've got a good bed of ash with a good amount of coals. I'll put 2 splits on it and get it blazing pretty good, after a while I'll add another 2 splits and let it burn for awhile and then close the damper some and close the air intake down to about 1/2 way.
Do I need a thermometer and if I do what kind to I need. It's a brick fireplace that the insert is in so there is no exposed metal other then the insert and the metal trim around it.
The only wood I could get was supposed to seasoned over a year but I'm not real sure how dry it is.
I really could use some help.
Thanks,
Brian
A little background info: We bought a new house that has an insert and it's finally gotten cold enough to use it. I don't know what brand it is and I'm not really sure were to look to found out. It has solid doors and a blower. My problem is I can't seem to get the room above 70 degrees. The room is 19'x14' with a vaulted ceiling that is 12' high. across from the insert is a 6' wide opening to the next room that is 17'x13'. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, not being able to see what the fire is doing because I don't have glass doors is driving me crazy. I've got a good bed of ash with a good amount of coals. I'll put 2 splits on it and get it blazing pretty good, after a while I'll add another 2 splits and let it burn for awhile and then close the damper some and close the air intake down to about 1/2 way.
Do I need a thermometer and if I do what kind to I need. It's a brick fireplace that the insert is in so there is no exposed metal other then the insert and the metal trim around it.
The only wood I could get was supposed to seasoned over a year but I'm not real sure how dry it is.
I really could use some help.
Thanks,
Brian