How to improve the fireplace

Brief recap is my pool room has a fireplace but the room is not insulated, is a garage converted in the early 70s. The fireplace does not heat the room very well unless you have a big blazing fire of great wood like oak. This morning, outside temp was 33 and the room was 53 and it only came up to 57 over a three hour period. I want to improve the efficiency.

I thought maybe I should paint the firebox a light color to reflect but not sure about that now. Dark might be better IF paint is a good thing at all. High temp paint, if that.

Also rediscovered a 'fireback,' which I have never known much about. This climate is not very cold; woodburning is not as common as in other locales. I also see mention of something made by a company called Great Wall Of Fire called 'vertical fireplace grate.' My question is does anyone know if either a fireback or a vertical grate would be a problem with an insert? I do not know if an insert would be a solution but it sure might and I would not want to invest in the other two if it's a problem for an insert. Then again, I haven't yet learned much about an insert.

 

Midwinter have you experimented with the fire back?

 

Not yet! But it's getting cold enough for a fireplace fire, so it'll be soon. I'll definitely report the results.
Just a lil' old piece of sheet steel Warner gave me.

 

Tag LordOfTheFlies for his thread on ecofan and fireplace....

 

It will interfere with an insert. The firebox in an insert is way smaller than the opening of a fireplace. The vertical grate will not fit inside an insert/stove. You can see how big it is in the below picture. The fireback reflective plate also will not really do anything since the insert will have shroud covering the face of the fireplace.

Here's my post on the eco fan. You can see it in action.

Ecofan + Fireplace... WORKS!

But below is the fireplace with the vertical grate and fireback.

 

How thick is that steel? For reference the fireback I have is 1/2".

The 3/4" solid steel grate + 1/2" fireback was $342 to my door back in 2014. The same units cost $381 now from www.gratewalloffire.com (not affiliated at all).

Pros:

Open hearth
Vertical grate that is gravity fed works amazing to build a huge bed of embers vs traditional grates.
Fireback reflects heat back into the room.
Ecofan works great to move heat and improve circulation.
My electric usage is down 33% year on year even with 3 kids home on full remote .
Way cheaper than an insert/stove install.

Cons:

Can't use overnight (not safe).
Burns wood faster than a stove/insert.
Need a secondary screen in case you burn softwoods that pop embers all over the place.

In a nutshell, I love it and am very happy with it.

The problem with a traditional grate as pictured above is that the embers fall down and there's a big gap between the unburnt wood and the embers. Also when logs will snap in half and fall and will need to be picked up and relocated. To an extent I do that once in a while but for the most part if you have nice 16" splits (which I did not do with the wood I'm currently burning) you just place logs horizontal and they self feed and just stay put and burn.

 

This was my order from 2014:

It says 3/8" but they "upgraded" it to 1/2".

 

Midwinters is 1 inch plate.

 

Must be super light then.

 

Nope, roughly 120 lbs.

 

Must be a lot of fun moving it then!

 

I’ll let Midwinter speak to that I dropped it on a dolly in her driveway she handled it from there.

 

That's gonna hold a lot of heat nicely!

 

I could find another piece if you wanted to take a trip to north central mass.

 

I wood (get it?) but that's a *tiny* bit too far! Thank you for the offer.

 

It wasn't bad. We kept it on the dolly up the front steps, and straight to the hearth. Then walked it into place. It was amazing that Warner had the exact right size, reposing in the poison ivy!

 

We had our first fire in the fireplace this afternoon.
Two hours after the pine burned out, the fireback is still hot to the touch. I'd say it's working!

 

Now all you need is a Grate Wall of Fire! Then you'll be cooking!

Link.

 

Have you looked at the Spitfire tube rack and blower?

 

Was unaware of it till you posted, thanks.