Lovely Can A Fireplace Actually Make Your Home Colder?

If you see the picture of the perfect American living room area in a home, you will find a cozy room that has a couch, recliner and a fireplace burning beautifully. Many families love to sit by the fireplace watching the flames encircling the logs. Not only does the fireplace add warmth but it adds atmosphere. Unfortunately a fireplace in a home isn't really perfect. There are many issues that make a fireplace very inefficient.

The way a fireplace works is to warm up the air around it. But it also creates a current that actually pulls that air out of your room and up through the chimney. So basically warm air is escaping and your fireplace needs to work even harder to warm your room. Yes, there is a damper on a chimney that supposedly keeps the inside air from escaping and the outside air from coming in. But most are not constructed very well and the seal around the edges of the damper still allows air to escape.

This problem is not difficult to fix. There is a damper that you can buy which is installed at the top of the chimney. This damper works just like a storm door in your house which is sealed so no air can get around it. You can get such a product online and you can install it yourself if you're comfortable going on top of your roof.

Another option you have is to make your wood burning fireplace into a gas fireplace. You can get a gas fireplace insert which can look just like a regular wood burning fireplace. These heaters use artificial logs that look just like they're burning. Depending on your home construction and budget, you have several options on how to install and vent the fireplace. Most gas fireplaces use propane or natural gas sources. Many people like this option better because you don't have to keep chopping wood and cleaning up ashes. A gas fireplace eliminates that need.

You can replace your fireplace with a portable electric heater that looks just like your fireplace. You can get an electric fireplace heater that includes a fan which can very efficiently heat a whole room quickly. Electric heaters are considered energy efficient. 100% of the electricity which is used is turned into heat and returned back out into the room.

Another inconvenience is that the fireplace is usually in the room with the thermostat. The room with the fireplace becomes very warm and the thermostat turns off the heat. This makes rooms in the rest of the home cooler because the fireplace is not heating them. This may lead you to look into getting a portable space heater for other rooms in your house.