Make Sure 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 will pay 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. Ensuring your fireplace is efficient will definitely save you the expense of wasted heat energy.  Health & comfort There are ancient and aesthetic draws to fire. If you can’t live without it, consider options for improving your old fireplace, or moving to a more energy-efficient fireplace or stove that will keep you cozier and won’t heat up the planet. Environmental considerations The impacts from wood burning depend partly on geography. In a valley or area where air gets trapped, smoke from wood burning fireplaces can pollute the air and increase respiratory illness. Use wood that has been sustainably harvested and make sure it’s dry. Burning wet wood produces more polluting 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 closes 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, the best 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 gas and wood burning fireplaces.
• If you do not 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!
• Be aware of how the fuel for your pellet stove is sourced. Using by-products of the food industry is sustainable but growing crops for fuel is a short-sighted 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.
• Electricity has more flexibility than gas or wood in terms of sourcing options, including sustainable energy sources like geothermal, solar and wind.
• Gas fireplaces burn a non-renewable resource and are limited by the cost of fuel, many of them can also be 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 many 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 keep a house warm all day from one or two short, hot fires. The downsides are that they are incredibly heavy (weighing thousands of kilograms) and the prices start at about $10,000.