One of the best features of your home may be your fireplace. Whether it’s a beautiful, hand-built hearth, or a pre-fabricated (factory-made) appliance, it adds value and beauty to any property. A fireplace can supplement heat, add ambiance, and save you money. There are steps you can take to make it even more beneficial to your home.
Maximize heat output with these five tips.
- Use the system properly. Whether you have a tradition open fireplace, a stove, or insert, it’s important to know how the system works. Using features such as a pellet hopper, damper, and front vents can help you light and maintain your fire. Maximize heat by keeping a consistent flame.
- Burn only properly seasoned wood in your fireplace. Burning green (fresh, wet) wood can cause an incomplete burn, more emissions, less heat, and cause more creosote in the flue. This is because the fire has to work harder to dry the wood before it can burn it. This is a waste of time, fuel, and heat. If you’re burning freshly cut wood, it can have up to 45 percent water content! It has to dry for 3-6 months and have less than 25 percent water content in order to burn efficiently.
- Make customizations that raise efficiency. A certified chimney sweep can fit your fireplace with custom, tight-sealing glass doors that produce ambient heat while raising system efficiency. When you have custom doors, your fireplace will work more like an insert, burning fuel more completely, and using more of the fireplace heat to heat the home.
- Choose an insert which can be retro-fitted directly into your firebox, piped through your chimney, and turn your inefficient fireplace into a heat-making machine. This installation must be done by a professional in order to get a properly-fitting insert installed correctly.
- Maximize heat by zone heating. Save on utilities by turning down your thermostat, then bring up the temp in the most-used rooms by lighting a fire in a beautiful fireplace. You will go from waste to warmth in no time.
Work With Us
It’s important to make sure your chimney system is clean and safe by scheduling routine chimney sweeps and annual chimney inspections. When your chimney is safe and clean, it will work more efficiency, burning the fuel more cleanly, and producing more heat in the process.
At Mr. Smokestack Chimney Service, it’s our goal for all of our customers in the Raleigh, North Carolina and surrounding areas to have a safe and warm winter, and the two go hand-in-hand. Choose Mr. Smokestack Chimney Service for all of our chimney services, and rest assured that your fireplace will keep working for you this winter.
Call 919-747-1859 today.
