Insert vs Firebox vs Fireplace please help!!!!!!!
15 years ago
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Comments (13)
- 15 years ago
- 15 years ago
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Comments (5)Andrelaplume2, a few comments. You do not state where you live. I have a similar situation. I have a 20 year-old, 1700 square-foot, all-electric, split foyer home in Baltimore. I have been in the house for 5 years. The heat pump is original Trane (we should count our blessings that they have lasted 20-plus years). I have a masonry fireplace in the below-grade family room. I have allergies (dust, pollen, grass, weeds, cats, etc - I get an allergy shot every 3 weeks and have been doing so since childhood). I have been using my fireplace w/one-of-a-kind wood-burning insert to suppliment the heat pump. The insert raises the temperature of the family room from 65 to 72 degrees. The thermostat is in the living room and set at 68. The layout of the house is not open so the heat does not directly go to the second floor living area (where the thermosat is located) and bedrooms, but it does add BTU's to the house and heats the floor of the living room. The fireplace does not affect my allergies. Neither does mowing the lawn. Are you so sure of the effects of wood-burners on your allergies that you write-off the best sources of heat from your masonry fireplace (wood/pellet insert or stoves)? Propane and electric resistance heat are the most expensive sources of heat - and by a large margin as compared to other sources of heat. I run the house fan in the summer only. This does 2 things. First, it helps to move air in the summer (I have ceiling fans also). Second, the wife doesn't know when the A/C compressor cycles off so there is less of a chance that she is playing with the thermostat. You can run your house fan in the winter with your new heat source and see how it works. I find that there is cold-feeling air blowing out of the vents in the winter time when the firepace is going in the family room (there are no return vents in the family room in the ceiling). Is there a return vent in the ceiling near your fireplace? I agree with Bob Brown from the HVAC Forum that your basement heating should be done with your current HVAC system. When you replace your current heat pump, you can increase it's capacity if needed and add ductwork to your basement. My opinions....See MoreMain Level Insert vs. Basement Stove
Comments (2)Is your main level fireplace a real masonry fireplace or a pre-fab fireplace built into a chase cavity? Is your basement finished or unfinished? When my wife and I lived in Connecticut, we had electric heat. We saw plenty of similar home with wood burners in the basement and central heat register looking openings cut into the floor through to the basement. That enabled heat to rise through the openings to get heat to the upper levels. My wife and I preferred to enjoy the ambience of the burning wood and more direct heat so we put our stove on the main floor. If it were me, I'd go with the insert as long as your existing fireplace is really masonry. If it's pre-fab, you can remove the existing fireplace and install a high efficiency fireplace that not only will heat the main level while looking like a fireplace, but you can also run duct work out of the side of the unit down to your basement and blow heat to that level. That what we have at our ranch house now in Illinois....See MoreInsert vs Firebox vs Fireplace please help!!!!!!!
Comments (4)I have a Fireplace Xtrodinaire FPX44 wood burning insert that I use as my backup heat source. Not only does it look nice, it can generate a massive amount of heat. I have had to learn how to make small fires and control the burn rate when we want a little ambiance versus backup heat mode where we need to crank it. The one caution about the FPX 44, or any fireplace like this, is you need to check the venting requirements. This unit requires two input vents for combustion plus a third input vent to draw in and heat fresh air from outside - and they have special placement requirements. It might be difficult to make all this venting work with your existing chimney. I would also check the flue requirements - how far will it need to stick out above the top of the chimney stack. The flue for my unit is large - I think a 16 inch diameter pipe, and the cap is even larger. My firplace is at the back of the house so you cannot see the large cap from the front. With your chimney in front, it might not look right to have a large silver dome sticking out from the top of the chimney. They make a smaller FPX wood insert, but I am not sure if the flue is any smaller. I can vouch for the heating and efficiency of the FPX insert. After a 12 hour burn, I wind up with about 1/2 of a 3 gallon pail of ashes. You could easily heat your house with this unit. Distributing all that heat will need to be thought out. When I start this thing up, I turn on my 1st floor and 2nd floor HVAC fans to draw heat around the house to keep the rooms near the firplace from getting too warm. The first time I cranked it without turning on the hVAC fans, I raisied the temperture in my family room-kitchen-dining room space from 65 to 77 in about 30 minutes! When I go into backup heat mode, I plan to use free standing vans to circulate the warm air around the main level of the house. If you plan on using an insert or firebox that has a fan in it, I recommend looking into a backup generator (a small portable unit will do just fine) so that you can operate your fireplace, plus any of the distribution fans, if the power goes out. The FPX unit can we operted without power, but the radiated heat generated stays fairly local to the unit - you really need the fan on to push the heat around....See MoreWood-burning fireplace vs. vent-free gas fireplace vs. NO fireplace
Comments (12)We had wood burning, and while I very much enjoyed the sights, sounds, warmth of a wood burning fire, we converted to gas. I do not miss the dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the fireplace. While we had wood, we were able to cut our own firewood which was a satisfying project at our ages then. I suppose we could still do it now, but cutting, loading, hauling and splitting wood aren't very high on my list of satisfying chores these days - and ordering, buying firewood has become expensive. Truthfully, we don't use the gas fireplace that often. This sprawled out one story house (1955) isn't hard to heat with natural gas radiant in the ceilings. I have the fire going during storms, or for the ambiance occasionally and when expecting winter guests and wanting the house to feel welcoming....See More- 15 years ago
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