On the news this past weekend when discussing the power outages due to snow and ice the anchor was detailing way to stay warm. Here’s the thing that got me: He said something along the lines of “Officials at <gas company name> say that you shouldn’t light a fire int he fireplace if you’re trying to stay warm, because a fire will actually make your house colder.”
WTF? Um, it’s a fire. People used fire to keep thier houses and caves warm for years. How can a fire make your house colder?
I’m at work so I don’t have time to find a cite, but the short answer is that the fire creates a vaccuum that sucks the air out of the house through the chimney.
Yes, it keeps the room that has the fireplace warm, but the other rooms will get colder.
This has be asked and answered in the past. In short the area around the fireplace warms while the out lying areas get colder to the the about of warm air being sucked out the chimey
we found that and had a gas fire fitted which had a heat exchanger pass in pass out type chamber which convected warm air into the room as well as radiant heat
the flue was sized to minimum requirements and the gas jet checked for co values by an engineer so that not too much air escaped up the chimney.
it is a compromise but i like a nice warm fire in the living room
the rest is pumped smallbore water radiators
when not in use the gas fire has a shield to fit over the front to cut down on draughts.
outside it looks like a balanced flue outlet similar to the gas boiler in the kitchen.
I think you could just close any doors inside the room to prevent the heat from escaping.
>> I think you could just close any doors inside the room to prevent the heat from escaping.
Yeah but then the cat can’t get out either _
regulations for gas appliances require venting a room to avoid incomplete combustion and subsequent safety problems
our house had an air brick fitted behind a large radiator in the room with the gas vented appliance so it could not be sealed using doors and windows
to cover the air brick would be an act of willful harm.
Once more reason: the fireplace is often in the room with the thermostat. Since that room will be warm (usually several degrees warmer than the temperature at which the thermostat is set), no heat will be coming into the rest of the house until after the fire dies.
A fire in the fireplace may look romantic but fireplaces are terrible as a means of heating a room. Terrible. As has been said, you get a little radiant heat right in front of it and a huge convection which draws heat up the chimney and draws cold air into the rest of the house. If you are using any kind of heat in the other rooms then you are probably losing more heat up the chimney than the fire is giving you. In other words, that fire is costing you heating dollars, not saving them.
If you want to heat a room by burning wood then a metal stove in the center of the room is the way to go. They do draw air but they are way more efficient. even better, get a wood burning furnace for your central heating.
Our house is built around a large hearth with air ducts under the fireplace and around the sides puching warm air from the fire to several other parts of the house. We live in a modern log home and have not had many problems with our central fire place or the other wood stove on the other end of the house. We also use oil heat and we compensate with the fireplaces to offset the heating costs. The only problem we have is the house is very dry so we need to run humidifiers occasionally. I think Realitychuck is correct as well. it also helps to have different heating zones in a home so climate control is more comfortable.
Wow. I thought it was all some load of crap from the gas company. Thanks Dopers!
And to those who see fireplaces as eco-friendly I’ll have you know they are terribly polluting. Stoves and furnaces can be built with designs which greatly improve combustion as well as efficiency but an open fire sends tons of pollution up the chimbley.
I once lived in a house that had a woodstove who’s air intake came from a pipe which drew air in from outside the house. Once I closed the glass door, the only airflow was from the outside directly into the fireplace - so I don’t think this type of setup convectivly sucks heat from the rest of the house… leaving you with only the other high percentage heat loss from inefficient burning and venting most of that directly out the chimney :rolleyes:.
You would have to seal the room from the rest of the house and the outside, but then the fire would consume all the oxygen in the room and both the fire and occupants would expire. If you arranged for the fireplace to get outside air, it would help. A Franklin stove goes a long way to prevent cooling. And houses that are heated by such a stove have the exhast going through the entire house. Of course, if you are burning wood, you have to be careful that the flue is kept clean from creosote which can catch fire and burn down the house. 