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Fireplace Saves Heating Costs

Fireplace Saves Heating Costs

Does adding a fireplace to your home same on the overall heating costs?

Costs Heating Saves Fireplace

It really all depends on what kind of fireplace you have, how big your house is, how do you get the wood and how cold your winters are where you live. If you have a large house, the fireplace may do a good job at heating one room (maybe the living room), but unless you have a fireplace that also includes a ventilation system to harness the heat, your not going to get much else hot except the one room. Even if you do have a ventilation system included, if the house is large, you are going to use a lot of energy to heat the rest of it. If you live in a really cold area, this is also a negative on the fireplace idea, unless you want to use it to just keep one area warm and don't care about the others. Now all these statements assume that you do not get your wood for free. If you do, you will save money, but wood is not cheap!

Honestly, you get better results for cord of wood by using a wood stove and not a fireplace. In a moderate climate, with cool nights that maybe just a bit on the cold side, a wood stove is a great buy. It also uses the wood more efficiently for heating, as more of the heat in a fireplace goes right up the flue.

The other thing to take into account is what the house is heated by...meaning electric or natural gas. The price of natural gas has increased, but is still far cheaper than electric if you live in a cold area.

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I will have to dig it up but I did do some calculations on this by converting a cord of wood a liter of oil and a cubic meter of gas to btu's along with the price.

I found gas cheapest then wood/oil last electricity. I based it on 300 per cord as one usually buys 1/3 of a cord at about 65 to 100 pending on location. keep in mind a cord is by law 4'x4'x8' most wood is ball park 12 to 18 inch long by 4'x8' so not I also based the calculation on an air tight wood fireplace with heat regulators in it. Makes a huge difference over an open heath type of the old days.

electricity
oil wood 2 times cheaper and gas 3 times. For me I get free wood we have to pick up take home and split slabs. so I get 4 or 5 cords in for under $100.00


I will post a new thread as I am looking for input on upgrading my system.

Costs Heating Saves Fireplace

I think for this one to work, you'd have to have the fire on instead of the central heating system, otherwise, your bills would increase if you kept all the heating on plus the fire.
Years ago, we didn't have gas central heating or radiators, and we relied only on a gas fire in the lounge, certainly the bills were much cheaper for heating in those days, but also the minute you left the room that had the fire, you would feel freezing!

Costs Heating Saves Fireplace

The central heating system is also a helper to distribute the heat from the fire place. I leave the gas on and when the upstairs get cool it turns on and warms the rest of the house. I notice a drop in the gas bills but we only have a open hearth basically so it really just serves the one room.

We are going to get an airtight and I have been investigating the rules on putting grates in the veiling so the heat can go up straight to all three bed rooms. If this is not allowed in our area I will just run the fan on the furnace in conjunction with a timer to help push the heat in the rest of the house. Our home is very open concept to the heat will travel very easy I am hoping that by reversing the ceiling fans up stairs we can create a air movement that will push the heat up easier.

One big item most forget with a fire or if you have gas stove dryer is that you need to install a fresh air intake into your home. Typically it goes into the cold air vent on the furnace. I think though that would increase your bills. I am thinking of adding one and having it just dump into the furnace room where the gas dryer is. Thus the air would warm a bit before going through the furnace, fireplace or dryer.

The fire place really should have a fresh air intake to improve performance and reduce back drafts. Just have to be careful on your flue temperature as if it gets too cold you get creosote or back draft also. I am thinking it would work best to come in through a pipe that could be a zigzag on back of fireplace to warm it a tad before it hits the fire chamber. I am still researching how the fresh air intakes are connected and valid options of their modification. Insurance companies are pretty sticky in this area.




Here are the calcs I ran if any errors are noted please advise as I was mistaken wood was the cheapest or at least close to gas.

This is a photobucket link my account.

Heating Calculations

Fireplace Saves Heating Costs

Here is a government site that talks about how touse the wood fire place.

https://www.canren.gc.ca/prod_serv/index.as...Id=158&PgId=823