Some questions about a wood burning insert - chimney liner, air quality etc.

[PikeoftheLake]

Hi and thanks in advance for your help.

I have a home here in Southern Ontario with a traditional fireplace and chimney. The house was built in 1988 and it looks like they have updated the chimney and maybe put a liner in? I'm not sure what I'm seeing here, if you would see the attached pic I would appreciate your thoughts.

I want to do something with this fireplace. Just having an open fire inside gets old quick with the mess and this year, anything we burned made my son's allergies flare up really bad. Also, the smell is bad year round if I close the damper, particularly on humid days.

So there are a few options:

1. Fireplace insert like this: CW2100
   • If we went this route what is the consenis on indoor air quality and these types of inserts? When you close the door does the unit just basically use radiant heating and the blower to push hot air out?
   • With my existing chimney setup, would the install be easier with the modifications the previous owners did?
2. Just put doors in the fireplace opening and call it a day with the hopes that this would help the smell.
3. Electric fireplace.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm not looking the heat the whole house or anything with this, just get rid of the smell and have something that could have a fire every few days in the winter.

 

[begreen]

Properly installed and run, with dry wood, the indoor air quality should be minimally affected. The insert will likely still need to have a stainless 6" liner run up the existing flue.