Fireplace not efficient

I live in a old farmhouse with a normal open face fireplace that we use to attempt to heat the east side of the house. Only problem is that it doesn't seem to do a very good job. I feel like most the heat goes right up the chimney and can only feel the heat when hovering around the fireplace. Wonder if anyone has more knowledge to get the heat into the house better. Do firebacks or blowers work? Or do I need to purchase an insert or stove. Help!

 

Welcome. Unfortunately this is a common complaint with fireplaces, that is why Franklin put his mind to developing a better way. We heat a small cabin with one in the fall-- it took a lot of wood!

 

Yep, most of the heat flies out of the chimney with a FP. I had a heatilator wood rack blower, but that was only slightly better than the straight up FP.

If you get an insert, or a stove, you'll easily gain a lot more heat than with the FP.

I've been there, done that.

My Quadrafire insert heats my house with no help from the furnace on most winter days in Wisconsin.

 

Been looking at inserts, wondering if one would work in that fireplace? Also how do they heat the whole house? won't the room that has the insert get really hot and the other rooms not so hot?

 

What dimensions is the FP opening? I'm sure there's several inserts that will work.

As far as heating the entire house, yes, it will. Mine does, and it's on the end of the far L of a 1700 sq ft open concept ranch.

You can use fans on low blowing from the far reaches of the house into the room with the stove/ insert. Inserts also have fans on them and that helps.

You can also use the furnace fan to redistribute the hot air around the house.

 

39" x 16" x 17" i believe or close to that. Ok, so you basically use other fans to push the heat from room to room? How does that work using the furnace fan to redistribute the heat?

 

Yep, it works great. You position small fans, low to the ground on low.

The furnace blower, I just turn the thermostat to blower, or fan on setting. There's tstats that have a "circulate" setting that will automatically cycle the HVAC blower fan on and off. I don't think mine will do that, but I'll check as my buddy's Honeywell will do that if programmed to do so. I think his is much newer than my Honeywell t stat though.

 

If you take off the metal frame , that the glad doors are on, you'll certainly see that it has more room than the dimensions you posted. It looks as big as my FP. I put a decent sized quadrafire insert in mine.
I could've poor ran even bigger insert in the FP opening I have.

Here's my install thread.

Got my efficient Fireplace insert!!!!

 

That's what I'm confused about. Does the insert have to sit in that fireplace with the bricks right now? Or do you remove all that, if so it's a huge space with 2x4 studs. I assume I leave the fireplace for extra heat protection. My house isn't very big right now but I plan on building new later in my life and would like to brig the insert with if so.

 

You will need to determine if that is a prefab fireplace, or truley one built in place- picture makes it look like a prefab. REf. old -well that depends on what you consider old 1800, 1900 1950 ect by the fifties prefabs were quite common( even in the 40's for more affluent types) as such the construction supporting same may not be in the best shape, or code compliant by todays standards. there is a story behind that, that almost cost a friend of mine his home- fire started behind prefab in supporting structure. Not from flue leakage or flue fire.

 

Ya it's prefab, I can't think of the model number right now. And surrounding the fireplace is just flat sheet of metal screwed in to cover the open wood space. So would you suggest removing the fireplace before an insert?

 

An insert has to go into a fireplace. If you remove the fireplace, then you have nothing to put an insert in. Not all inserts and pre fabs are compatible.

 

In the same boat as you in fact that pic you shared almost looks identical to my fireplace setup. Initially I was burning green wood and the fires and heat was just pitiful as I learned more and more and started building fires with properly seasoned wood I noticed a big difference in the amount of heat it kicked off. With that said it's still very inefficient but it's nice I have glass doors to keep heat from escaping when it's not in use. But here's my question and forgive me for being a novice!

Inserts or stoves also have a chimney or a venting system so don't a lot of heat escape up and out? I guess I need a lamens terms explanation of how an insert or stove throws off more heat into the room and is more efficient? I know they burn wood much more effective as my open fireplace burns wood fast!

 

Could you post a picture showing a little more of the hearth and surrounding area? What do you have to work with on that wall?

 

That looks exactly like the prefab Heatilator we have in our living room. Except you've got bifold doors, and ours aren't.

Our is an ambiance appliance only - if we had to rely on any heat from it, we would freeze in short order. I think it actually has negative efficiency even though it has an outdoor air intake - it sucks more heat out of the room & up the chimney than you could hope to put into it.

I also think, unfortunately, that you would have to pull it all out & demo that area completely & start from scratch if you wanted to do something different. These things can't be swapped with an insert.

 

This is all I got. Drops down about a foot to carpet. Talked to an installer that's going to give me an estimate sometime this week. He suggest the fireplace will work, just need to take out the brick lining of the fireplace.

 

What exactly is he estimating on? Or it will work - for what?

I would have to check but I don't think there's much holding the brick lining in ours. Might just be sitting there, in panels, like. It's basically just a big sheet metal box with those brick panels in it around where the fire goes.

 

Not knowing exactly what you're dealing with.... my first instinct is to pull that sheet medal box out of the hole, open up some room, and check your options from there. Keeping the prefab will limit your options (space) considerably. My $.02

And welcome to the Hoard.

 

If that's a pre Fab FP, and not a real brick and mortar FP, you are dealing with something completely different than what I dealt with, or am used to working with.

 

A large part of the reason that open fireplaces are so inefficient is because of the sheer volume of air that's going up that chimney. An open fire place needs enough airstream to suck all the smoke out of the room. I've read that you can have as much as 500 CFM of air going up an open fireplace. That's 500 CFM of outside air that's coming in somewhere that has to be heated somehow.

By contrast, a closed woodstove or insert on "cruise" is sending less than 30 CFM up the chimney. Maybe even less than 20 CFM. That's massively less air volume to heat. Way less heat actually leaving the house. Way more heat staying in the house.


ETA: Another reason for the difference is the smoke itself. A modern stove with its baffles and secondary ignition or catalyst is burning much of the smoke that an open fireplace would send up the chimney. That smoke is unburned fuel, a source of heat that is much harder to capture in a fire place vs. a closed system.