When we lived in NJ we had a fireplace, wood burning, which we used fairly often. We had doors of course. We got half a cord of wood delivered which lasted for a few years. It did not really heat the house, since more heat goes up the chimney than it generates, but it looked cool. We had an ash trap below it so we didn’t have to worry about shoveling the ashes, and we had the chimney cleaned every year.
In California we have one in a room we seldom use, so we’ve built a fire maybe three times in 23 years, using fake logs. The living room has a pellet stove which we never really got to work. It never gets cold enough here to be worth it.
If I were putting in a fireplace I’d definitely get a gas one. My daughter’s looks almost as good as a real one with a lot less aggravation.
I always wanted one but when I finally got it, I found the ashes and smoke were super hard on my lungs (I’ve since been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis.)
If I’d stayed in that house I would have need a fireplace shop vac to suck up the ashes immediately.
One more problem, where I live at least. Any day cold enough to need a fire is probably a spare the air day when you are not allowed to have a fire.
And in Northern California if you want to smell smoke during fire season you can just step outside.
I live in a sometimes-blizzard zone in California’s central Sierra Nevadas. I’m happy to now be affluent enough to NOT depend on firewood, as I did most of my adult life. Heat during a power cutoff is the one and only advantage of a propane heater with electric blower. Accumulating firewood; hauling logs in and ashes out; inhaling fumes and particulates; watching for errant sparks; keeping pets safe - that all sucks. Do what you must, but look for options.
I’ve used my fireplace exactly once in twenty five years. Way too much work to justify the dubious charm. I’d happily get rid of it and free up the space in the living room. Of course many others feel differently.
My fireplace sticks out of the house. I could “recover” the space it takes by putting a rug over the fire proof patch of tile in the floor. How much space does yours take up?
I can’t speak for Tim, but in my own case, I have a ranch style house. When you walk in through the front door, the back side of the fireplace is to the right, and the entire fireplace takes up about an 8 by 5 foot area. Without the fireplace, the living room would include not only that area, but also the “hallway” of sorts created by the fireplace on the right and the wall on the left. So getting rid of the fireplace would significantly increase the size of my living room.
But, my living room is plenty big as it is and I love my fireplace, so no way in hell would I even consider getting rid of it.
There is lots of good advice in this thread but I want to stress this bit. I know people whose house burned down because somebody left three-day-old ashes in a cardboard box out on the porch. Always assume there’s still heat there unless the ashes have been cold for, literally, months.
This, however, I’m pretty dubious about as that’s what I do with mine. Admittedly this is often done on tilled ground before a crop is planted and/or at times of year when cover crop isn’t actively growing anyway, but I’ve certainly spilled some on the lawn when that was growing and nothing died.
It’s true that water and wood ash makes lye. But you need a little water dripping slowly through a whole lot of wood ash to produce anything much.
What you do want to do if spreading wood ash where you want anything to grow is a) get a soil test first and b) don’t keep putting lots of it on the same area year after year. The stuff is good fertilizer, trace nutrients and potash, but too much potash is a problem, both for plants and as a water pollutant in any runoff. Wood ash will also raise your pH so shouldn’t be used if your soil’s already alkaline; and again too much of it can make soil too alkaline.
I suspect your chimney’s not drawing well; which may be a flaw in the design of the chimney. It may, for instance, not be tall enough above the house.
A lot of modern stoves and chimneys are poorly designed; they were meant for looks or at most for occasional toys, and are likely to get no heat into the house and/or to burn or draw poorly. Some fireplaces are actually designed to heat an area, and they’ll do a better job; but still not as good as an enclosed stove (most modern ones have glass doors so you can see the fire.) There are enclosed stoves made as fireplace inserts, to put into an existing fireplace. They’ll probably increase safety as well as heat, at least if you get a good one; and will allow you to go to bed while embers are still hot, because the doors will keep the fire inside the stove. (Don’t go to bed with a roaring blaze going, though. Damp the stove down first. It should come with instructions on how to do this; stove controls vary from stove to stove.)
Oh – and about that oak firewood? Dry (seasoned) oak is excellent firewood. Green oak will put your fire out, even if you put it on top of a roaring kindling blaze. And oak doesn’t dry to speak of until it’s split; so if the person selling the oak says ‘oh it’s been down for two years’, that may be true, but the wood may still be dead green. If you’re not sure whether the wood’s well seasoned, try to get ash.
(Been heating either solely or primarily with wood for most of the last, oh, about 45 years now. I do like having central heating for a backup, though.)
The side of the fireplace is against the exterior wall, so it’s not in the center, but the fireplace and chimney are all completely inside the house and are not built into any exterior wall.
If you are standing in the living room, facing the front window of the house, the fireplace is off to your right. Exterior walls would be in front of you and to the left.
Open fireplaces are only about 10% efficient. Wood stoves much better, most good ones easily go over 70% efficient, some around 80%, and actually will heat the entire home easily with no additional source. I have a non-cat wood stove for about ten years that has no problem keeping my house nice and toasty. It doesn’t get old to me, and saves me a ton on my electricity. You might consider putting a wood stove inside your existing fireplace. It can be done nicely and look right.
To start your fire, you actually get your hottest burns by starting the fire at the top, not the bottom. It’s a popular method in Europe.
The most efficient fireplace is one you can’t buy, but build yourself (or have done for you), called a Russian fireplace, also known as masonry fireplaces. These approach nearly 100% burn, around 98% is common. They have so much mass, that the heat is stored up like a battery, and is slowly released over time giving a nice radiant comfortable heat. They are so efficient, that you only start one fire, shut the door, and you won’t have to build the next one until a day or two later, maybe more. I’ve read of one couple in Canada that actually goes about a week between firings. These type of fireplaces burn so well, that the glass stays clean, so do the inside of the firebricks. I’ve been reading about these in Mother Earth News magazines for many decades, and after seeing quite a few on You-tube, so when I start another cabin in CO, this is what I’m shooting for. Plenty of You-tube clips to watch.
We used to use ours a few times every winter, but over time we’ve used it less and less. Last winter we discussed having a fire during a power outage, but the power came back on before we decided. We do have some monster bonfires, but those are just practical ways of getting rid of wood.
I had a wood burning stove (well a couple of them over the years) and used it for our primary heat source. When you burn every day and use 6 chords of wood a year, it get to be a bit of a drag and any romance is kinda gone.
We now have (our second) propane fired stove. It’s great. Can put it on a thermostat and just forget about it. I do like to see the flames, and really like the radiant heat. It’s mid July, but still gets used every day. It was 41 degrees F last Saturday.
I’m totally with @Procrustus on this. Our first fireplace was in a new house we bought shortly after we were married, and I have very fond memories of it. Getting firewood was not so much a “chore” as a seasonal celebration, heralding the coming of fall and the approach of the holiday season, of which the fireplace was always a traditional part. I’m not a fan of fireplace doors or inserts, though they certainly make for heating efficiency. We always just had a traditional open fireplace with a folding screen.
As for wood, softwood is good for kindling and softwood logs work well for the initial phase, though not really necessary, but well-seasoned hardwood should be the mainstay once the fire is going well.