Heat from a fireplace insert?

[Mendonsy]

I had a wood burning fireplace insert for about 10 years, but as mentioned above controlling the heat can be difficult and there are lots of chimney issues to deal with.
I have had a wood pellet insert for the past 15 years with a SS flex pipe inside the fireplace chimney. It works fine and supplies almost all of the heat I need for the entire house. My furnace does not come on until the outside air gets down to the mid 20's. I shut the insert down when the outside temp gets much above 50 because it is just too warm. Mine is an older version which does not have a thermostat.
The one issue with a pellet insert is that it does require electricity to run. If the power goes off it will shut down.

 

[jk96]

What I don't like:

I spent over an hour yesterday cleaning the glass from use over the holidays!

IT how are you cleaning the glass? We have a see through indoor/outdoor unit which means 4 doors to clean. I clean once a week and takes about 15 minutes for all.

 

[murphy1244]

Since he is burning fresh wood cleaning glass is a daily chore

 

[Egon]

Clean glass = easy off stove cleaner and nice hot fires.

 

[Deere Dude]

Windows get dirty more often when the dampers are throttled back, it seems, but after 3-4 days of almost continuous burning my wife cleans the windows and it takes about 2-3 minutes. For me, I like fireplace inserts but only if airtight.
Use outside air for combustion, usually a 4-6" insulated flexible pipe.

They use ceramic glass with is almost impossible to break from normal use. I had my fireplaces almost white hot and they held up. My non-airtight fireplace went through windows from overheating just a little.

Many chimneys can use 6-8" stainless steel insulated or three layer metal chimneys that screw together for exhaust. Easy to install and only has 1" clearance, but check codes.

The fireplace uses standoffs so clearance requirements are easy to figure out, but it is generally 1-2".

I prefer wood but it does not instantly heat the house. But because of the burning wood embers and heat absorbed into the metal it takes a long time to cool down. It is gradual, whereas gas heat is nice, but when the gas shuts off, it is cold instantly.

They don't stick way out into the room and can be stoned or bricked to look like an old fashioned fireplace.

Don't get to small of a firebox if you want a lot of heat.

Make sure it comes with a blower run by a switch, at least. I had a nice fireplace blower with a thermostat but never used it. I just turned it on or off. I did not like the option where the fireplace would have to come up to heat before the blower would start up. Generally the fireplace would be very hot before it would start which would be 1/2 hour after I would want it to start. Now I start the fire, wait 5 minute and the blower comes manually on. It works great that way. If it gets to warm in the house, I turn it off and the residual heat will continue to heat fro a while.

Try to make sure it uses regular firebricks instead of formed or shaped bricks because replacements would be much easier and cheaper.

My fireplace cost $2700 over the internet and is adequate to keep a 1800 sq. ft. not very insulated house fairly warm. The chimney I got from Menards over the internet delivered for about $900 if I remember. It has two 30 deg elbows and about 20+ feet of 6" double wall insulated pipe.

I installed it but the lamo insurance man made me get a contractor to check it out to make sure it was up to specs.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

My fireplace has a Fisher insert that was installed about 40 years ago. It's still in great shape and has no trouble heating the whole house. We have upgraded the house insulation, so now it only takes a small fire to keep the house warm. Regulating the heat is just a matter of not filling the insert with wood. A small fire works fine. When we bought the place there was inadequate clearance between the front of the insert and non-combustible surfaces, but we solved that by replacing the floor with ceramic tile over cement board. There is no liner in the chimney, which has a 12" fire clay liner in excellent shape. We have no draft problems since we installed a stainless chimney cap.

 

[Deere Dude]

Oh ya, when cleaning out day old ashes don't set the metal pail ofn carpet overnight or even a couple hours. The carpet melts to the bucket and then has to be replaced/

 

[Industrial Toys]

I used to use "Timber" brand glass cleaner, but ran out a while ago. Now I use some industrial cleaner I got in a thirty or so gallon drum. It works about just as good but both are funny (and time consuming) processes. I spray a little on and it only takes off so much off. Waiting for it to soak in doesn't help. So much cleaner only seems to attack so much creosote, so I have to keep repeating the process. I used to rinse the glass inbetween, but this doesn't seem to help, except to make it easier to see where the creosote is still stuck on.

I have never broken a piece of piero-ceram (sp?) from heat, but just let two pieces tap together, as in when cleaning and there will be pieces broken off!

 

[Tomtint]

We have one in our living room. It's on almost every night when we are watching TV. It will throw a insane amount of heat, to the point where it heats 750 SF to 80* .. It runs on propane and is decent as far as efficiency. Our oil furnace does not kick on much until very late at night after the fire is out.

 

[jerrybob]

Inserts are excellent. We put in two Kozy Propane inserts about 12 years ago. One of them....we use almost every night in Winter. Never have had a problem with either to date. The one downstairs gets used on occasion. Both heat the rooms very well. We have very high ceilings upstairs......that room obviously takes longer to warm. We installed two 120 gal. propane tanks when we put the inserts in. I usually fill them twice a year. The inserts came in real handy a few years back when we lost power for 6 days due to a bad storm......even ran the fan off the generator....we were warm.