# Does a regular fireplace heat well?



## Carmen1979 (May 10, 2010)

Our home has a fireplace but we've never used it so far, b/c it needs to be cleaned and the flu (sp?) needs to be fixed. But we plan to use it this winter. My question is, will a fireplace actually heat the house very well? How far away form the fireplace can you actually feel the heat? Is there anything you can do to increase the amount of heat that goes out into the house, as opposed to up the chimney? Thanks!


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Regular fireplaces are lousy at heating.....maybe 10-15% of the wood you burn provides heat, and the rest goes up the flue.....especially if the chimney is on an outside wall. 

About the only thing you can do with an existing one is add a set of glass door, so when the fire dies, you don't loose what room heat you have up the flue before you can close the damper.

The BEST thing you can do is put in a good stove insert....we bought the Regency "hearth heater" model.....it's 85% efficient, and much of it sticks out from the FP opening, so you can use it as a cooking surface in a pinch as well ( most "insert" stoves sit well back in the opening )....and don't forget, there is a 30% federal tax credit on them currently.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

NO, a regular fireplace basically uses firewood to produce heat to pull warm air out of the house and up the chimney. "Regular" fireplaces have been shown to often just heat the people or objects directly in front of them while pulling cool air into the house with the result that they actually cool the house. TnAndy has good advice.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

I agree, get a wood stove insert. I see them all the time on Craigslist. Before you do, get a good chimney sweep to check your chimney to see if it is in good shape, lined etc. Better to do all this than have a chimney fire.


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## Carmen1979 (May 10, 2010)

Those stove inserts...what do they run? I'd want mine profesionally installed since I have no experience with that sorta thing..does that get expensive? DO the outsides of the unit (the part that sticks out) get really hot? B/c I have cats and a dog and I'd be afraid of them burning themselves on it.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Agree that fireplaces use a LOT of wood and can be uneconomical because of that. Some fireplaces are better than others, but a stove or insert is a better way to go for heating.

See that picture of the flame burning behind glass in that insert? The first couple of days you use a stove like that, you get to see some fire. Then the glass gets covered with soot and you never see it again unless you want to play Cinderella and scrub the glass everyday and get covered with soot.

Dogs and cats understand fire and heat. I've never seen one get themselves burned. It may be has happened, but it is pretty rare.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Harry Chickpea said:


> See that picture of the flame burning behind glass in that insert? The first couple of days you use a stove like that, you get to see some fire. Then the glass gets covered with soot and you never see it again unless you want to play Cinderella and scrub the glass everyday and get covered with soot.


Harry,

Your experience with glass in doors is probably from the older stoves, which did do exactly as you say. The new ones don't.....they will soot over if you close the air down ( like at night when you go to bed ), but 10-15 minutes of opening it back up in the morning, and they burn off all that, and you're back to a clean glass......that was a concern of mine as well, but has proven to be unfounded.


Carmen: Ours ran 1800 for the stove, and another 1,000 to have it installed...that included a new, 6" stainless steel liner pipe inside the existing chimney flue, which they recommend......so 2,800 total...and remember you get 933 bucks back in taxes for a stove with 80% or better efficiency rating......so that knocks our out of pocket back to shade under 1800. ( Jack's Stove Shop, Black Mtn, NC to put in a plug for Jack...did what he said, when he said, and I did it all over the phone ) That MAY sound like a lot of money, but when you consider we used NO other form of heat this winter, ( 1500 SqFt ) the savings in that respect alone will pay for this stove in another year or two.

As to the cats/dogs.....guess what.....like kids, they learn if they get burned not to do that again....quit worrying about 'em......not that the sides get all that hot anyway.


For all:

These new stoves and inserts are a *WORLD* of difference to the older Buck and Fisher type stoves ( I have one of those also in the basement)....they use stainless steel tubes in the top of the stove as a "re-burn" gasifier system.....it's the next generation up from catalytic converters....no maintenance ever to this system, whereas the converters must be replaced from time to time due to burn out. I fired up my Fisher stove in the basement and this one.....the flues exit side by side on at the chimney top....the Fisher stove put out all kinds of flue smoke....the Regency, you almost couldn't even tell it was burned except for the heat shimmer you could see above the flue.....NOTHING visible coming out.
I haven't pulled the insert out yet for a flue cleaning, but I'm expecting almost nothing in the way of creosote, whereas my Fisher in the basement, and the wood furnace in my shop, I'll clean a 5 gallon bucket of creosote out of the flue on them.

My only regret with this stove is I didn't install it years ago.

AND I would NOT buy a stove off Craig's list unless you are very familiar with wood heating, and know EXACTLY what you are getting, and how it will perform.


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## Carmen1979 (May 10, 2010)

One other question..for it to blow the heat out into the house, it must use electricity, right? Cause one reason I want this is to know I'll have heat, even if the power goes out. How would that work with the blower?


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## ChickadeeL (Dec 10, 2008)

Our last woodstove had a blower. You are correct that the blower will not work if the power goes out, however, that just meant that the stove could not push the heat as far. It was still a completely usable woodstove without electricity (and the blower was an option so not even necessary).

Not sure if this is still the case with woodstoves but that is how it used to work.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Yes, the blower requires electricity. 

BUT the model I showed you gives off a LOT of radiant heat ( more like a free standing stove ) since so much of it sticks out in the room, so you can have a fair amount of heat ( we actually don't use the blower on ours a lot because it will over heat the room ) without the use of the blower.

We actually went shopping for a different stove someone recommended to us ( a "Quadafire" brand ) but when I saw this Regency, I could see right off it had WAY more advantages than the brand that was recommended to us....the "typical" fireplace insert sits BACK mostly in the fireplace hole, with a trim panel around it....they MUST have a blower to get the heat out in the room effectively.....this "hearth heater", not so much, since most of it sticks OUT from the FP opening, as you see in the photo.


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## Carmen1979 (May 10, 2010)

So even without power it still heats better than a regular fireplace? Thanks!


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## Panhandler (Mar 23, 2010)

TnAndy is right about the new inserts. I have a woodstove installed NOVEMBER 2009 and its GREAT. Probably the best investment for heating i ever could have made. Grew up with fireplace and it was good ,as long as you were right up to it. Dad got insert with blower and it warmed the whole house.This was 25 years ago,but the technology TODAY is GREAT.My fiance and kids love it and there is nothing like the HEAT from it. Be AWARE of craigslist,you may get something someone overfired ,and you dont want that. Go to Hearth.comforums and educate yourself...best move i could have made. friendly folks more than willing to give advise on such things.


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## tamsam (May 12, 2006)

I wouldn't be without our wood heater but it also uses coal. One question, do you have access to wood and do you want to cut and split wood? I love to get out and try to split but I can only do a few swings and rest a bit then do a few more. between the wood and coal and the propane we use as backup when we aren't home our heat only cost around 300 dollars and that was because we had to buy a couple truck loads as our truck bit the dust. A heater will make the house feel a lot warmer than any other heat and it is wonderful to back up to when you come in out of the cold. Nothing like a big pot of soup beans cooking on the stove top. Good luck getting a heater that will suit your needs. 
Where are you located? Our back up gas is a vent free propane wall heater. Sam


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

We have a Rumsford Fireplace in our main house and it does not work! Oh - it will fire up but people chat and say a Rumsford will "throw" the heat back into the room but ours totally does not! We have a regular fire place in one Cabin and it also does not heat anything but the immediate area. If you have a fire place - get an insert if you are trying to heat the room.


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## Pikman (Jun 14, 2010)

A wood fired stove/heater is a great way to heat a house. We have a Dutch West free standing heater. Circulating hot air throughout the house will require electricity. We use the ceiling fans to do that, so the cost and noise is minimal. On the sooted window issue, if the fire is hot enough, it will not soot up. Remember, what ever you see on the glass is also in the chimney, so pay attention to that. The newer stoves are much more efficient than the old ones, but they do need to be run hotter to stay clean. Your wood should be about a year old and have been out of the weather to be burned. Wet or moist wood lowers the burning temps considerably, and will deposit more soot and creosote. Wood that is too dry will burn too fast, and will not produce sustaining heat. Wood stoves do require some participation on your part. They need cleaning, ash removal, and you will also be sweeping bits of stuff from the wood off your floor more often. You will also like the way the temps in the house stay fairly constant, not warming up and cooling down like you get with conventional heating systems...


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Make sure and size the stove for the area. To be efficient it needs to burn hot. Many people get one too big and then it runs you out of the room. I know my living room is very small. We build a small hot fire and let it go out, the radient heat lasts for hours. Ours is made to cook on and has an oven. Also has a water heating coil. Small hot fire, set oven temp, let fire die down and it will bake a loaf of bread. Nothing like a wood fire. My fan runs off 12 volt and is very small and efficient, it runs for an hour after the fire goes out and is still blowing warm air. This is an efficient way of using wood, very small pieces, we use almost all scrap from home builders, a lot split into kindling. A newspaper sheet wadded up to start, some kindling and a 2'x'2 piece of wood will bake a loaf of bread and heat the cabin. Only on very cold days do we build a fire and close the draft to keep a fire...James


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## redwall (Mar 10, 2007)

if you have a old mason fireplace the brick is what heats the house you have to keep a fire going most of the time to have it really heat the house up. think about 10 hours in advance.


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