I've had several fireplaces........
The best by far was a Lopi, cook top..............
You get that firebox hot, and it would run you out.............
But, they ain't cheap


This one is really nice.......
And, when the lights went out, for three days it served me well........

Mine puts out a ton of heat. Thermostat is in the hallway and heater doesn't run then we have a fire going.

Coach, that's quite a window you have above the FP. Does the flue go around it on both sides?

Flat-screen TV.

&
Kept our house at 72 when it was 8 degrees. Had to plug in a space heater in the farthest room though.
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My Grandmother has a fireplace, she likes to see the fire and runs her central heat to stay warm.

Our new house has a natural gas fireplace and it was worthless (unless you were standing right next to it) this week putting out heat when the electricity was off. Our wood burning fireplace in the old house was much better at producing heat, IMO.

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/40/1/diy

stove insert, best of all worlds and a whole lot more efficient.

if you want heat out of a fireplace you have to almost completely close the damper, ours has been running constant since last sat, burned about 1/2 to 3/4 cord and kept the big room at 65 with minor help from the furnaces (been pretty much out of propane since the 13th, thanks amerigasholes).

used the off/on power as my alarm clock, lights come on I added wood, napped between. have the damper as closed as it will go, something is bent so it won't close all the way any more.

I'm an old man, so I used to listen to Am radio when I worked mornings. I was listening to a home improvement show. Apparently older houses were built with good fireplaces, because it was the sole source of heat, and German built fireplaces were the best.... now a days fireplaces in some cases pull more heat from houses then they produce. It will literally suck the warm air from your house. They are built more for show, but you can buy inserts for you fireplace that make a huge difference.

if you don't want an insert, get a glass front screen and add one of these for heat.
that pipe system works great and will run you out of a room quick if you let it.



https://www.northlineexpress.com/fireplace-glass-door-benefits.html

https://www.northlineexpress.com/sp...rF1sBmenCMNT3yZMiyvmKG1kN5BoCRG0QAvD_BwE

People discount the purpose of a well designed fireplace surround. Brick, stone, and engineered surrounds are excellent at distributing heat into the room when 75% of the heat produced goes out the chimney.

The best fireplace is going to be either a free standing wood stove or an insert with a blower to circulate the heat.

My last house was a complete gas insert with no chimney. The surround would get hot enough to warm up the living room. It ran on natural gas and was very effective and cheap.

The new house runs on propane, the gas logs are just for looks as propane is too expensive to run 12 hours a day everyday.

We have masonry fireplace with refractory bricks, it puts off some heat. We also have a pretty small house, 1200 sqft, so that helps.

the best way to get home heat from a wood fire is
wood furnace with automatic damper control > wood stove > fire place insert with heat exchanger/fan and glass doors + external feed of combustion. air > glass doors on fireplace + external feed of combustion. air

My fireplace is a steel box with a shell and fans that circulate air around the fire box. Air from the room goes in the bottom vent and is blown out into the room from the top vent. It works even without the fans on.

For anybody seriously considering an insert there is a 26% Federal Tax Credit incentive on them for 2021.

Side vents ?

Excuse my ignorance what the heck is an insert and blower. My house is 30 years old and it looks like a regular fireplace.

Mine is garbage. I burned wood for almost 5 days straight & I froze my tail off sleeping on a cot 3 feet in front of the fireplace. You can't feel any heat from it unless you're w/in 2 feet & then it's barely noticeable.

We have a small wood stove in our Ruidoso place, once you get the fire going, it heats the whole place. Upstairs gets real warm, the bottom floor comfortable. With temps in the 20's the heating unit only comes on a few times a day.

Still running my 38 year old Ashley wood stove with a small squirrel cage blower fan. Keeps house nice and warm, (68-70) on the coldest am’s, even with the 30min rolling blackouts. Central heat never came on! Feel blessed to have it in this weeks weather !

It definitely helped but it doesn’t seem very efficient. The other side is brick wall and back room addition so I’m thinking that helped?

Wood burning fireplace that was in the house when I bought it, not the best one but still very functional. Ran it about 16 to 20 hours a day Sunay through Thursday on 3 wheel barrows or wood some dry and some green. Kept the end of the house in the 70s and up to 77 degrees and back bedroom got down to 64 one day. 1400sq/ft house built in 1976 original single pane windows that will be replaced this spring. In the mornings the heat did not cut on after the fire had been going 45 minutes or so until well after I went to bed. When this one needs replacing I will go with a glass door model but the steel doors work but the fan will not come on until the doors are shut.

Bought a 50lb bag of peanuts in the shell and used the shells from that for fire starter, worked great couple inches in the bottom with a little news paper and it would start the seasoned wood just from that, they burn hot for a bit then provide coals for a bit as well





Time to clean it out and load up for the next fire