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.
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The Log Rack
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