Fireplace Grate heaters

[HEMI®Dart]

My brother bought a house this spring. He has a regular fireplace. He wants to use the fireplace to heat the house this winter to save on natural gas. What's a good low cost way to stop allot of the heat from going up the chimney.



Are these fireplace grate inserts any good?



Any other suggestions?

 

[Bertram65]

I have a small fireplace in my family room that is open to the kitchen, I used the fire place for a season but it never added any real warmth to the room. The next year I did a lot of research and bought one of the Counrty inserts, this on, http://www.countrystoves.com/wood_in_StrikerCA160.htm I have been very happy with it, I can leave my heat at 60 and heat the room to as hot as I want even when it is close to 0 out, I usually keep it around 78-82 with the stove on, makes the rest of the house seem freezing. 68k btu is pretty impressive for it's size. My only complaint is because the firebox is on the small side you have to load it just right to get it to go fully through the night.

 

[klenger]

My experience with products like that is that they add some heat, but the effect will not be dramatic.

 

[Gene Arnold]

Unless you can get some outside air into the firebox you'll probably waste more heat than you gain. We use our fireplace a lot but it is kind of like our two waterfalls-- cheap therapy. The fireplace is comforting but at a cost - extra heat lost from the regular heat source as well as the cost of firewood. The waterfall sounds are comforting but at the cost of extra water and here in the desert that is not cheap.



Gene