fireplace update

[salopez]

Hey guys need some help.

I have a majestic pre-fab fireplace in my living room that is pretty worthless. We also have a nice wood stove in the basement that is awesome. However when it gets below zero the house is cold. I want to update the fireplace in my living room and am really thinking one of the two below bit not sure which one.

Gas logs in existing fireplace. Convenient and can add a gas stove in kitchen which would be nice

Pellet stove insert. I think this would give off more heat but don't know.

Additional info. We have a heat pump as main heat and back up generator

 

[brin]

Hey guys need some help.

I have a majestic pre-fab fireplace in my living room that is pretty worthless. We also have a nice wood stove in the basement that is awesome. However when it gets below zero the house is cold. I want to update the fireplace in my living room and am really thinking one of the two below bit not sure which one.

Gas logs in existing fireplace. Convenient and can add a gas stove in kitchen which would be nice

Pellet stove insert. I think this would give off more heat but don't know.

Additional info. We have a heat pump as main heat and back up generator

You might want to Google ...Installing wood stove in Pre - Fab fireplace....I think you will find it is not advised....From what I have seen ...the pre fab has to be removed...hopefully from the back and then the whole thing has to be rebuilt to accommodate the heat of a wood stove or real fireplace....

 

[beeforty]

You will need the backup generator for the pellet stove when the power is out because of the blower for the pellets and feed auger. Inlaws now seem to spend a lot on pellets for their stove, not sure which is cheaper now gas or pellets. At least with gas you don't need to run the generator unless you need lights with power off. It is easier for everyone to feed a pellet though.

 

[BeezFun]

In what way is the prefab unit useless? If it's pulling combustion air out of the house you could add doors.

 

[dave1949]

People have posted that they can run their pellet stoves off a 12v battery and inverter during power outages. It would be bad to have to keep the generator running all the time to keep the pellet stove operating, but apparently that isn't necessary.

The fireplace inserts I have seen need/use a fan to kick the heat out into the room, another electric dependency.

 

[s219]

Agreed, don't expect to put an insert into the fireplace -- they are not designed for that.

What is the problem, and how would gas logs improve it?

Does the fireplace have an outdoor air kit? A blower fan? Glass doors?

We have a pre-fab fireplace (Heat & Glo Energy Master 485). It does not give off near as much heat as a stove would, of course, but if we run it (with glass doors open) for a couple hours and build up a bed of embers for the rest of the day, the radiant heat is enough to make the room it's in quite hot -- and that's a big room with a cathedral ceiling and loft. I run a ceiling fan to even out the heat and make the room more comfortable. I can also pull hot air from the ceiling through a return using the HVAC blower, and push it to the rest of the house. Surprisingly it puts out enough warm air to notice even in remote corners of the house.

If we run the fireplace for just a couple hours and then let it die, it will never get a hot bed of embers and doesn't heat much.

If we run with the glass doors shut, there is very little heat radiated into the room (almost as if the glass blocks the radiant heat). Running the blower fan moves a little more heat (captured from the box and liner) into the room, but not much.

So I have found the trick is to run with the doors open, build up a hot bed of embers, and then keep feeding it for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, close the doors and turn on the blower fan to burn the fire down and extract remaining heat.

 

[Welshman]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but we had (have) a Majestic pre-fab fireplace that wasn't very efficient. We installed a Regency high efficiency wood burning insert in it and love it. In fact, I'm enjoying it right now. This is the third winter for it and it's really getting a work-out this year.

 

[s219]

All the inserts I have looked at are meant for masonry fireplaces only, and that included some Regency models. Which one do you have?

 

[Tractor Seabee]

OP,

If you burned wood in the prefab there is no reason not to put an insert in it. They run a new flue pipe up to the top sized proper for for the insert. I have an EPA approved insert in a regular fireplace. It has a fan to push the hot air out so we get convection and radiant heat. It has provisions to bring in outside air for combustion but that was not installed, wish it was. Therefore; get a modern insert, set it up for OSA combustion, and make sure the fan is in your generator panel. If you gen set runs your heat pump you have the best of all worlds. Our insert provides a lot of heat. During power outages (2-3 times a year) we can at least keep thins from freezing and the core area toasty. Ours cost $4500 installed 4 years ago when we bought the place. The old insert did not meet code so seller paid the cost. Pellets up here now are about even with propane in cost per BTU output. Nat gas is not available. I cut my electric bill $200/month by using the insert and wood (free) in cold weather.

Ron

 

[haveissues]

We had the same situation with a pos zero clearance prefab fireplace in our house. I replaced it with a bis nova a few years ago. It is basically a zero clearance wood stove that installs in the wall. It creates great heat! We heat the upstairs with it. You really can't use an insert because you have no firebox. Once that fireplace comes out you are left with a big hole.