We just moved to a rural area of Ohio. Our new home has a traditional, old-fashion fireplace, something our previous home didn’t have. It’s a fairly modern home, so there’s also a forced-air central heating system in place (propane).
I think it will be nice to use the fireplace every now and then during the winter. So here’s my question: Is it efficient? Assuming the furnace is on, will burning logs in the fireplace end up “helping” the furnace, or will it actually contribute to more heat loss in the home?
I can see how it would increase heat loss due to warm air rising and escaping up the chimney. But I can also see how it would warm the house (via radiation).
In a word, no. Fireplaces are more suited for visual enjoyment. They can be made more efficient with the addition of a fireplace insert.
When the fireplace is burning, you will be adding BTU’s to the home, but when it is not in operation, you will save a lot of heat by closing the damper to prevent heat loss.
There are reliable reports from earlier centuries of people huddling in front of fireplaces during New England winters, their faces scorching, while apples on the table a few feet away froze solid.
Generally speaking, most of the heat goes straight up the chimney.
The house my grandfather lives in has a central fireplace; that is, the back of the fireplace forms a brick wall of the next room over. It gets a little chilly in Minnesota in January, and those warm bricks throw off a LOT of heat. Not enough that he doesn’t have to turn the furnace on, but the propane tank out back is only filled once per winter.
Most houses built these days seem to have fireplaces on an exterior wall which seems, to me at least, a huge waste of heat.
As a means of heating a home you cannot get a more inefficient and polluting system than a fireplace. The only positive aspect is that we all love to play with fire and are fascinated it. Other than that, if you are heating the rest of your home, a fireplace is a colossal waste of energy ($). If you are looking for a practical way to heat your home with wood, look into stoves as they are much more efficient.