Chances are the weather is so nice today that building a fire is not on your "To Do List." However, here are a few things you should know about your fireplace, even in warm weather.Your chimney may be sucking conditioned air out of your house. Many older homes were built with fireplaces designed to burn coal, and many of them have no or inoperable dampers. If you use your fireplace and burn wood, be sure you have a properly functioning damper, and that it is closed when not in use. While giving lots of ambiance, a traditional wood burning fireplace often delivers little if any net heat to a conditioned home.
If you have traditional (vented) gas logs, you are required to have any damper in the chimney fixed in the open position. This is because traditional gas logs produce carbon monoxide, and since it is colorless and odorless, the only safe way to address this is through a permanently open damper. If you have these logs, consider retrofitting them with more modern ventless models. These units burn cleanly, deliver 100% of the heat to the indoors (if the damper is closed or chimney sealed off), and the main product of combustion is water vapor, something most of us can use more of in the low humidity indoor winter environment. Do your homework and learn to pros and cons to ventless gas logs and other devices.
1 comment:
Glad I had my chimney checked by a professional before using it - you should always do that. The damper does work. We like our fireplace, but only use it when we can sit on a couch directly in front of it, get cozy and enjoy ambience with the heat. We don't rely on it to heat the house to any degree. Some management of the damper can keep it from sucking away too much heat. We open it as much as needed to withdraw smoke and by-products depending on the fire's output and smoke generation. We leave the damper open slightly when there are glowing embers and fully close it when the fire is completely out. When embers are still glowing to some degree is probably when you can lose the most conditioned air.
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