Metal Casting Zone Info Blog

Posts Tagged ‘convection current’

4 Tips For Fireplace Efficiency

The fireplace has long been the favorite spot to gather in the American home. A place for warmth, the fireplace adds ambience, sparking memories that are to be treasured. With all the benefits that a fireplace can bring, there are some major downsides that if not addressed can cause a love for the fireplace to wane.

With soaring energy costs, the chief negative of having a fireplace has to be its inefficiency. When there is a fire burning, the fireplace does indeed radiate warmth in its general vicinity, but it also creates a convection current that can actually pull conditioned air out of the room and up the chimney causing your furnace to work overtime. When the fire is not burning, the fireplace has a damper which is supposed to block inside air from escaping and outside air from invading. The problem is that the damper is usually made of metal (this type of damper technology hasn’t changed in over 100 years!) and has no seal, which means that the damper is incredibly inefficient.

Your home has a dirty little secret – the fireplace that is designed to warm your house is actually doing the opposite and costing you hundreds of dollars in energy costs. Don’t fret – with a little investment of time and money, you can turn that inefficient fireplace into a powerhouse heater that will reduce your energy bills and add even more charm to your existing fireplace.

The following is a list of 4 things that you can do yourself to drastically reduce the heating costs associated with the inefficiency of your fireplace.

1. Top Sealing Dampers replace the fireplace throat damper and are installed at the top of the chimney. The top sealing damper has a seal that acts like a storm door keeping the expensive conditioned air inside the house and the outside air – outside. This principle works year round, whether you’re heating or cooling your house. This product can be purchased online and is easily installed by either a homeowner or a handyman.

2. A fireback is a cast iron plate that is placed at the back of your fireplace. Its purpose is to protect the back wall from fire damage and it usually features a design that adds to the homes decor. The fireback improves the fireplaces efficiency by absorbing the heat from the fire and radiating the heat back into the room.

3. A Fireplace Heater pulls fresh air from the room, circulates it through a chamber that is heated by the fire and then blows the heated air back into the room. These heaters are closed systems so no smoke from the fireplace is invading the home. Depending on which kind you purchase, these heaters can make a significant difference in your homes temperature, even heating a full room on its own. Specific fireplace heaters can be installed with fireplace glass doors which will kick your cost savings up another notch.

4.  Fireplace Glass Doors will likely carry the largest investment, but you can reduce some of that cost by doing some of the work yourself. There are a number of fireplace doors that can be purchased online and come with easy to install instructions. The fireplace glass door creates a barrier between the living space and the chimney, thus reducing the area that your furnace will have to heat. This alone is a good reason to install these doors, but it’s not the only reason. Fireplace glass doors offer another level of safety for the home by protecting children and pets from the fire. If you have a wood burning fireplace you will want to purchase the screen mesh that is designed to go with the fireplace glass doors. This will allow you to have the doors open while the fire is burning and still have your home protected from sparks and embers. Fireplace glass doors are now being manufactured with modern designs and really add beauty and charm to the fireplace.
If you’re handy, all of these suggestions are easy to accomplish. In addition, all of the products, while difficult to find locally, can easily be purchased online. If you’re concerned about high energy costs but you want to keep your fireplace, then it’s time to plug up the holes in your monthly energy budget by plugging up the holes in your fireplace.

Some Advice For Fireplace Efficiency

The fireplace has long been the favorite spot to gather in the American home. A place for warmth, the fireplace adds ambience, sparking memories that are to be treasured. With all the benefits that a fireplace can bring, there are some major downsides that if not addressed can cause a love for the fireplace to wane.

With soaring energy costs, the chief negative of having a fireplace has to be its inefficiency. When there is a fire burning, the fireplace does indeed radiate warmth in its general vicinity, but it also creates a convection current that can actually pull conditioned air out of the room and up the chimney causing your furnace to work overtime. When the fire is not burning, the fireplace has a damper which is supposed to block inside air from escaping and outside air from invading. The problem is that the damper is usually made of metal (this type of damper technology hasn’t changed in over 100 years!) and has no seal, which means that the damper is incredibly inefficient.

Your home has a dirty little secret – the fireplace that is designed to warm your house is actually doing the opposite and costing you hundreds of dollars in energy costs. Don’t fret – with a little investment of time and money, you can turn that inefficient fireplace into a powerhouse heater that will reduce your energy bills and add even more charm to your existing fireplace.

The following is a list of 4 things that you can do yourself to drastically reduce the heating costs associated with the inefficiency of your fireplace.

1. Top Sealing Dampers replace the fireplace throat damper and are installed at the top of the chimney. The top sealing damper has a seal that acts like a storm door keeping the expensive conditioned air inside the house and the outside air – outside. This principle works year round, whether you’re heating or cooling your house. This product can be purchased online and is easily installed by either a homeowner or a handyman.

2. A fireback is a cast iron plate that is placed at the back of your fireplace. Its purpose is to protect the back wall from fire damage and it usually features a design that adds to the homes decor. The fireback improves the fireplaces efficiency by absorbing the heat from the fire and radiating the heat back into the room.

3. A Fireplace Heater pulls fresh air from the room, circulates it through a chamber that is heated by the fire and then blows the heated air back into the room. These heaters are closed systems so no smoke from the fireplace is invading the home. Depending on which kind you purchase, these heaters can make a significant difference in your homes temperature, even heating a full room on its own. Specific fireplace heaters can be installed with fireplace glass doors which will kick your cost savings up another notch.

4.  Fireplace Glass Doors will likely carry the largest investment, but you can reduce some of that cost by doing some of the work yourself. There are a number of fireplace doors that can be purchased online and come with easy to install instructions. The fireplace glass door creates a barrier between the living space and the chimney, thus reducing the area that your furnace will have to heat. This alone is a good reason to install these doors, but it’s not the only reason. Fireplace glass doors offer another level of safety for the home by protecting children and pets from the fire. If you have a wood burning fireplace you will want to purchase the screen mesh that is designed to go with the fireplace glass doors. This will allow you to have the doors open while the fire is burning and still have your home protected from sparks and embers. Fireplace glass doors are now being manufactured with modern designs and really add beauty and charm to the fireplace.
If you’re handy, all of these suggestions are easy to accomplish. In addition, all of the products, while difficult to find locally, can easily be purchased online. If you’re concerned about high energy costs but you want to keep your fireplace, then it’s time to plug up the holes in your monthly energy budget by plugging up the holes in your fireplace.

Sandy gets kicked out of the UpStairsGirl’s new crash pad and seeks refuge at Ashley’s house with Doug and Kevin. The drama unfold with a cast of hand puppets.

How to make your fireplace more energy efficient

The household fireplace gets quite a workout. It’s where romances are sparked. Where families gather on cold nights to warm their hands and hearts. It’s where Santa emerges triumphant after squeezing his plus-size tush down our blackened chimneys. And it’s where hundreds of dollars in heating costs go up in smoke each year. Seriously.

You see, the fireplace, which was once the central heater of the early American home, is actually causing our modern homes to lose heat. Here’s why:

Fireplaces suck

When you start a fire in the fireplace, it does two things. It radiates warmth in your general vicinity, but it also produces a powerful convection current that sucks warm air out of the room and up through your home’s chimney. This odd phenomenon actually causes your home heater to work overtime, pumping out more heat, which, in turn, is pulled up and out of the chimney.

Dampers don’t

The second problem with the average household fireplace is the damper. When the fireplace doesn’t have a fire going, it is standard operating procedure to close the damper. Right? The damper is a mysterious device tucked up into the chimney that is supposed to block the chimney from heat loss when the fireplace is not in use. These sturdy gadgets are forged out of metal and, consequently, lack an airtight seal to keep all of the air from escaping. Which make the average dampers a bit of a failure. They fail to accomplish the very job for which they were created.

Solutions

But don’t despair, there are several things you can do to make your home fireplace more energy efficient.

1) Chimney Cap Dampers These handy items seal a chimney at the very top. Similar to the concept on a storm window, the chimney cap damper caps off the chimney to reduce heat loss in the winter and cooling loss in the summer. Top seal cap dampers are available online and can be easily installed by a handyman or the do-it-yourselfer.

2) Firebacks Okay, you don’t have to be a handyman to install a fireback. These decorative cast iron accents actually serve a purpose. They slide easily behind the logs in the back of your fireplace. They look pretty, protect the rear wall of the fireplace and do something else. They radiate heat back into the room. Genius! Think of the fireback as a catcher on a baseball team. They keep throwing back whatever you throw at them, increasing your fireplace’s overall efficiency.

3) Fireplace Heater A radical solution is the fireplace heater. These electric heaters pull fresh air from the room, circulate it through a chamber heated by fire and then blow the heated air back into the room. Electric fireplace heaters can warm an entire room, no problem. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and slide right onto the fireplace hearth.

4) Fireplace Doors A pricier solution is glass fireplace doors. These transparent doors create a physical barrier between the room and the chimney, which reduces heat loss, which, in turn, reduces the work of your central heater. These glass doors also protect young children and pets from a roaring fire. Fireplace doors come in a variety of styles to help blend with your home’s décor.

Any of these solutions can work to help lower your energy bill. All it takes is a little upfront investment. And before you know it, you’ll be back on that bearskin rug toasting your accomplishments in front of a roaring fire.

More Cast Iron Fireback Articles