Ensure Your Fireplace
is Efficient

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Quick Facts Affordability Cost Savings CO2 Reduction		When you cozy up to a crackling fireplace on a cold day, you might be robbing your home of heat. An open fireplace is one of the most inefficient heat sources you can use. It will actually draw warm air up the chimney and pull cold air into your home through any unsealed gaps or openings around windows and doors. For the rest of your home to stay warm while you sit by the fire, your heating system has to work harder and longer. Affordability The costs to upgrade the efficiency of your fireplace or to purchase an energy-efficient fireplace vary widely, but the heat wasted by an inefficient fireplace is like money going up in smoke. It pays to make your fireplace more efficient – or to close it off. Cost savings Depending on the area you live in and the efficiency of your fireplace, a fire can be a cost-effective way to heat your home. An efficient fireplace will definitely reduce the expense of wasted heat energy. Health & comfort There are ancient and aesthetic draws to fire, and wood heat can really warm a room. Make improvements to your old fireplace, or move to a more energy-efficient fireplace or stove that will keep you cozier and won't heat up the planet. Environmental considerations The environmental impacts from wood burning depend on a number of factors, including the local geography and the wood you use. In a valley or area where air gets trapped, smoke from wood burning fireplaces can pollute the air and increase respiratory illness, particularly if you're not using a high efficiency woodstove or masonry fireplace. To lessen the environmental impacts, always use waste wood, or wood that has been sustainably harvested – and make sure it's dry. Wet wood produces more smoke and less heat.

What you need to know

Fireplace maintenance

If you are not ready to give up your old fireplace, make it as energy efficient as possible:

• Close the damper tightly when the fireplace is not in use. This can dramatically reduce heat loss.
• Check the damper periodically to ensure it can close tightly and is in good working order.
• If you use the fireplace only occasionally, install glass doors. They act as a barrier against warm air loss up the chimney and stop the pull of cold outside air into the home. Some models are equipped with small vents along the bottom or sides to allow a controlled amount of combustion airflow into the fireplace.
• If you use your fire regularly, a less expensive alternative to a new, efficient fireplace is adding a well-designed insert. Old inserts were poorly designed and inefficient; new ones can greatly increase the heat radiating into your home and limit heat loss. Inserts combine glass or metal doors with an outside combustion air vent, which uses outside air to keep the fire going instead of pulling warm air from the house. Inserts are available for both gas and wood burning fireplaces.
• If you don't use your fireplace, seal the damper tightly with weatherstripping and fill the chimney with insulation. Be sure to provide some ventilation for the flue or condensation can form in the chimney. Remember to remove the insulation if you decide to use the fireplace again – and let new owners or tenants know it is there if you move out!
• If you use a pellet stove, be aware of how the fuel is sourced. Using by-products of the food industry as fuel can be sustainable, but growing crops expressly for use as fuel is a shortsighted use of agricultural land.

Purchasing

If you are in the market for a new fireplace, here are some things to keep in mind:

• For a wood-burning fireplace, think about the region you live in. Factors like the availability of sustainable wood supplies and local air currents affect the environmental impact and cost of burning wood.
• Gas fireplaces burn a non-renewable resource and are limited by the cost of fuel. Some gas fireplaces are less efficient than wood or pellet burning stoves.
• Gas fireplace efficiency has a wide range, from as low as 20% up to about 75%. An inefficient gas stove will be costly for you and for the planet. However, in an area where air pollution is an issue, gas might be a better option than some of the wood-burning systems.
• A wood-fired masonry stove is the cleanest way to burn wood and is likely the best fireplace on the market, with efficiency approaching 90%. Because they retain so much heat, they can heat a house from one or two small, hot fires in a 24-hour period. They burn sticks or any hard fuel, they don't need to be stoked, and you can get them designed with a built-in wood fired stove as well. Prices have come down a lot in recent years, especially for prefabricated models made in Canada. The only downside is that they are incredibly heavy (weighing thousands of kilograms), so in most cases, you will need to reinforce your floor.