No Power, No Problem

Be Prepared When the Power Goes Out ! Living in Canada, we’ve all experienced a bad winter storm. Freezing temperatures, piles of snow and, every so often, the power goes out.  This begs the question: Is your home ready for a power outage? It’s important to be prepared for power outages. Besides the obvious (food), […]

Fireplace Safety

As heating season comes along, its important to think about fireplace safety when it comes to children (and pets).  Fireplaces (stoves) get hot.  Although certain safety standards have improved over the years (such as mandatory screens on gas and propane fireplaces), there still remains a number of danger areas.  Follow these five steps for a […]

Efficient Pellet Stove Project

Friendly Fires has been working on an efficient pellet stove project with St. Lawrence College and Green City Initiatives. Just recently at a SWITCH meeting, we were approached by Green City Initiatives as they have been experimenting with pelletizing coffee grinds. Essentially, burning pellets is replaced with an alternative. Their concept was to see if […]

You can’t touch this!

When I joined the fireplace industry I was amazed as to how many Canadians primarily heat their homes with wood.  Coming from the city I was used to the open brick fireplace that actually removes heat from a home – and I was not familiar with new efficient wood burning appliances. I soon learned that […]