The Log Rack
Alternative Heat From Your Fireplace
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With the high cost of heating fuels more of us are turning to wood as an alternative heat source. Your fireplace can
be great for an enjoyable evening fire for the weekend wood burner but it is not an efficient heat source. Most
fireplaces tend to pull heat out of your home. The room you are burning in might get warm but the rest of the home
gets cold. Heat always seeks cold. Did you ever visit an older home that had a fireplace in every room or one at
either end of the house? Using multiple fireplaces in your home at the same time allows the heat to be pulled
through your home. This heat transfer does a great job of heating your home. As coal became more popular with
central furnaces many homes were built without fireplaces or only one.
More heat can be gained with the use of a blower or fireplace fan. Fireplace grate heaters seem to be the most
efficient for putting heated air back into your home. Low CFM fans or blowers are always used in fireplaces. The
reason for a low CFM fan is because you want to gently move the heat if you push the heat too much it will cool
faster. Go green with a non-electric wood stove fan.
The most effective way of getting heat from your fireplace is with an insert. An insert is a wood burning stove that is
inserted into the firebox thus it is called an insert. Federal codes require using a positive connect. A positive connect
is a 4ft stainless steel pipe that goes from the top outlet on your insert, bypasses the smoke chamber and passes
through the damper. The positive connect takes the smoke from your insert and moves it into the flue. With a
positive connect in place smoke will not curl around behind your insert where it can start to cool causing creosote to
build up. Positive connects can also be used to reline your chimney all the way to the top for maximum safety and
draw.
A wood stove insert will give you the maximum heat output from your fireplace. The firewood is burnt in a sealed
firebox and you control the burn by allowing more or less air into the firebox. A wood stove insert does not take
much air out of the home and it puts a lot of heated air into the home.
Another great alternative is using a fireback in your fireplace. Firebacks absorb the heat from your fireplace and
radiate the heat back into your room long after the fire has died down.
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The Log Rack
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