If you have an open masonry fireplace, have you considered how much money could you save by installing a wood-burning insert in your fireplace?
If you’re having a cookout, you would never consider burning balled-up newspaper sheets as the fire source to cook your hamburgers and hot dogs. It would be a highly inefficient cooking method that would require constant re-stocking and re-igniting, and it would take forever for the food to cook.
The question is, are you doing the same with your fireplace?
Where does the heat go in a typical fireplace?
A standard open wood-burning fireplace might create a pleasant ambiance in a room, but it’s not a particularly efficient heating unit. It is estimated by experts that between 50% and 90% of heat from this type of fireplace goes up the chimney instead of out into the room.
Fortunately there’s a way to prevent this: wood-burning fireplace inserts.
These units are made of ultra-strong steel or cast iron and can be installed in various sizes that are designed to fit snuggly into your existing fireplace box area. The heavy, insulating walls of wood-burning fireplace inserts cause them to function much like wood-burning stoves – and if you’ve ever been around one of these stoves, you know how much heat they deliver to an area.
With attractive glass doors, inserts are the perfect way to burn wood more efficiently and for longer periods of time while generating heat to cut down on electric or gas heating bills. They’re designed to heat rooms measuring between 1,000 and 3,000 square feet, so when purchasing an insert, make sure to have room measurements with you to tell your dealer. This way you’re assured of choosing the right size insert for your needs.
Experts in the hearth industry estimate that a fireplace with a wood-burning insert cuts heating costs by between 10% and 40% per year. That can add up to a sizeable amount of money, particularly if you use your fireplace on a regular basis.
How a wood-burning fireplace insert works
First, as mentioned above, there’s the solid steel or cast iron interior, which holds heat within the firebox. Most wood-burning inserts also come with a fan that causes hot air to circulate within the firebox and be pushed out into the room. The result is logs that burn more slowly and efficiently and create heat at the maximum level possible.
In fact, logs in a wood-burning fireplace insert typically burn for three to five hours before more wood needs to be added. Using burning wood in an insert to create heat in a home costs the homeowner just over $900 per year, on average. That’s a lot less than fireplaces without inserts and far less than the cost of gas or electric heat.
So you may want to consider bringing your fireplace up to peak performance with a solid wood-burning fireplace insert. You’ll appreciate the convenience and cost savings right away!
Could your home benefit from an efficient fireplace insert? Contact Friendly Fires today for the best practical advice and direction.
View all of the Wood Burning Inserts we have available on our Wood Inserts page.
