Zero Clearance as emergency heat?

[overlandsea]

Hello all, we bought a new house with electric heat (heat pump and wall units). No natural gas in the area and we don't have propane set up. The fireplace right now is a zero clearance I believe. Superior bcf-4385 with blower. I can't find any information about it. From what I've read, the ZC are much less efficient than a wood stove insert would be, but I'm wondering about its suitability as emergency heat for a power outage. We live in a semi-rural area where power outages can last several days. Western WA so not crazy cold, but cold enough. Anyways, I'm not so concerned with efficiency as I would only see using it as a heat source for maybe 10 days a year, but I am wondering if it can actually kick out any meaningful heat.

Thanks!

 

[DAKSY]

If it's your ONLY source of heat during a power outage, you're probably going to be cold, but won't freeze.
Think of it as a campfire. If you're cold & you face the fire, your front side gets warmed, but your backside remains chilly.
If you turn around, your backside will get warm & your front side will cool.
That's pretty much how your fireplace will work, & it doesn't matter if it's masonry or a ZC metal box.
It'll give you WARMTH, but not HEAT. Any HEAT will go up your chimney.

 

[overlandsea]

If it's your ONLY source of heat during a power outage, you're probably going to be cold, but won't freeze.
Think of it as a campfire. If you're cold & you face the fire, your front side gets warmed, but your backside remains chilly.
If you turn around, your backside will get warm & your front side will cool.
That's pretty much how your fireplace will work, & it doesn't matter if it's masonry or a ZC metal box.
It'll give you WARMTH, but not HEAT. Any HEAT will go up your chimney.

Thanks that makes sense. And if I am able to run the blower through a gentran/generator, will that improve the situation substantially or no?

 

[JA600L]

Does the unit have an outside air supply to it? If it doesn't you are probably pulling more cold air into the house with it running.

 

[DAKSY]

Thanks that makes sense. And if I am able to run the blower through a gentran/generator, will that improve the situation substantially or no?

Marginally...

 

[kennyp2339]

1st find out what type of unit you have, some zero clearance fireplaces are only made to have a fire in them for a few hours at time, think aesthetics like x-mas eve, thanksgiving day ect, Then find out what type of chimney system you have, hopefully is masonry with a good liner, or class a metal pipe, if its anything else plan of additional costs to bring it up to par for a heavier duty unit.

 

[blacktail]

Living on Camano with only electric for heat, you're headed the right direction by looking at backup options. Your area has a reputation as the first to lose power and the last to get it back. I'm not very far away and the last year was the worst in a long time for power outages.

 

[overlandsea]

Living on Camano with only electric for heat, you're headed the right direction by looking at backup options. Your area has a reputation as the first to lose power and the last to get it back. I'm not very far away and the last year was the worst in a long time for power outages.

Yeah, we really love the area, but are familiar with that reputation, so I know we need to get something going. I'm having a hard time deciding...looking like wood stove will require a minor remodel, because the mantel is too low (something I don't have time for right now), pellet stove needs relies on generator, which we have, or propane, I would need to get propane tanks . If you have any wisdom on what works best in the area, it would be appreciated.

 

[overlandsea]

If it's your ONLY source of heat during a power outage, you're probably going to be cold, but won't freeze.
Think of it as a campfire. If you're cold & you face the fire, your front side gets warmed, but your backside remains chilly.
If you turn around, your backside will get warm & your front side will cool.
That's pretty much how your fireplace will work, & it doesn't matter if it's masonry or a ZC metal box.
It'll give you WARMTH, but not HEAT. Any HEAT will go up your chimney.

Thanks this explanation made a lot of sense to my wife and I. Seems like a wood stove insert would be a good option, except distance between hearth and mantel is 37" and the models I have looked for all call for more like 44" or more. Does anyone know of a wood stove insert that can be used with 37" between hearth and mantel?

 

[bholler]

Thanks this explanation made a lot of sense to my wife and I. Seems like a wood stove insert would be a good option, except distance between hearth and mantel is 37" and the models I have looked for all call for more like 44" or more. Does anyone know of a wood stove insert that can be used with 37" between hearth and mantel?

The manual for your fireplace very clearly states that you cannot install an insert in it. So the clearances don't really matter because you don't have a fireplace that can accept an insert.

 

[begreen]

According to the manual this fireplace was not designed to be the sole source of heat and it does not list any inserts allowed for installation in it. One option might be to install a rear-vent, freestanding stove in front of the ZC on a proper hearth and vent it via an insulated liner.

 

[St. Coemgen]

If you are only going to use if for 10 days a year, when power if off, consider just a fireplace heater for zero clearance fireplaces (Google it for retailers) which will push warmed air into your living space as you burn and keep you a bit warmer on those "off days" without power, such as:



Just get a non-blower/non-electrical one (since you will use it without power of course).

 

[bholler]

If you are only going to use if for 10 days a year, when power if off, consider just a fireplace heater for zero clearance fireplaces (Google it for retailers) which will push warmed air into your living space as you burn and keep you a bit warmer on those "off days" without power, such as:

In my experience those are not worth it

 

[overlandsea]

According to the manual this fireplace was not designed to be the sole source of heat and it does not list any inserts allowed for installation in it. One option might be to install a rear-vent, freestanding stove in front of the ZC on a proper hearth and vent it via an insulated liner.

Too bad, I started to suspect this might be the case. I think I'll end up going with propane freestanding downstairs instead for backup heat. There's already plumbing and a wall direct vent in place, so I think this would be quite a bit easier. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[overlandsea]

In my experience those are not worth it

The fireplace heaters seem like an interesting idea, but I can't imagine they could ever do a better job than the built in blower, correct. Obviously lack of electricity is a plus, but for comparison purposes, it would never be better than the blower right?

 

[bholler]

The fireplace heaters seem like an interesting idea, but I can't imagine they could ever do a better job than the built in blower, correct. Obviously lack of electricity is a plus, but for comparison purposes, it would never be better than the blower right?

In my experience they do little to nothing. And if they did work and extracted very much heat from the fire you would then run into problems with the exhaust gasses being to cool and forming creosote.

 

[bholler]

And for what it is worth those are not an approved accessory for your fireplace either so by using one you would void the listing as well. I personally think that is a little silly but they clearly say you cant use and non approved accessories.

 

[blacktail]

Sounds like you won't be using electric heat this weekend! Wind storm tonight with a possibly historic one Saturday.

 

[begreen]

Sure hope that Songda chooses to go north instead of east.