Your fireplace

[Bandintheusa]

I worked in a house that had two fireplaces. These burned denatured alcohol. It had a tank that you fill up every so often. I havent seen them work , but , the claims were very impressive.

 

[inactive]

I have a ledge rock fireplace (you know, patterned like this ), that has natural gas, but no logs installed. I simply use the gas to light the wood.

It pulls air from inside, and keeps the den very warm. As Dennis describes, the bedrooms can get chilly.

 

[twocan]

Anyways, For you guys burning real wood. What do you do with the ashes?

Scatter them in the garden and all down the drive way.

 

[TurnedTurtle]

We have a standard open wood fireplace that does a poor job of heating even the living room. I've been wanting to get more heat out of it and have been doing a little research on the wood stove inserts. While looking around at inserts I ran across this web site and thought I may give it a try first. Has anyone used anything like this?

Check it out.

GrateWallofFire.com

 

[_CY_]

custom fireplace insert with high output blower... been heating with wood for 6 seasons now. didn't even light the pilot on gas heater for 3 seasons. but now using gas to even temps out.

much better on gas heater to use once in a while... drives moisture off the heat exchanger.

my fireplace has a external ash dump. using that channel as an outside air source.

 

[tranger2]

I have the fireplace that takes its air from the outside. It has blowers that take the inside air around the firebox and blow it out the top. I have two controls; one to control the inflow of fresh air and one to control the exit smoke. Closing the latter makes the firebox hotter. It uses a lot less wood than my last fireplace. I love it.

 

[TRLail]

I installed a Buck fireplace insert in my home in 1989. We live North of Sand Springs, no Natural Gas is available, so we use this as our primary heating source. Our house is a true 2 story, approx. 2300 sq ft. We use between 3 & 6 rick per year depending how bad the winter is. Yes, we have to carry wood, yep we load it up 2 times a day, and yes you have to deal with ash. But it gives the warmest heat, it's a joy to fire up and drink your favorite beverage in front of, and most of all, it beats paying for Propane! I wouldn't trade it for anything! It's great

 

[vvvvvvv]

We have a wood burning stove in what used to be a third bedroom. The previous owners "remodeled" the trailer and expanded the living room. Those who have been in 1970's trailers know what I mean, as the layout is almost identical from trailer to trailer in that time period.

We start burning wood once the temperature consistently doesn't get above 45F. At that point, there isn't enough insulation for the central heat to keep up. If it gets below freezing for multiple days at a time, then we at least consider sleeping in the living room. It just depends on how my asthma is doing.

As for ashes, burning 24/7 requires emptying about every 5-6 days (I keep the "ashes" glowing as long as I can). If there's snow or ice on the ground, it goes in the lightest area that's least likely to be used for emergency water. If not, well, there's a big dirt spot that works just as good.

We don't stock wood inside the house until we know it's going to snow or ice. At that point, we get as much inside as we can.

 

[RaysZ71]

I got one and we burn quite a bit of wood every year, depends how cold it is too.


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[Copper01]

I've got a decent insert in my fireplace. When its in the 30's, I can fill it up around 10pm and heat the whole house until about 5am. At that point the bedrooms start cooling off again. I typically turn the Central air fan to help circulate the heat. I don't know if its just nostalgia or what but there is something that I love about a good wood fireplace.

The first year we moved out to my place I cut nine ricks of wood just to see what I needed. I ended up on using about five. When it's consistantly cold I typically burn a rick in about 3 days. Though at that rate the house is uncomfortably warm for me, though the wife and daughter love it.

If I was to ever build a house from scratch, the main living area and each bedroom would have a fireplace.