Getting heat out of the fireplace

[Fried Chicken]

Friends overseas ask me what America is like. I don't think I've found a better summation than "we have fireplaces designed to NOT heat the home".
Here's mine:


Now I'm looking at options to rectify this since I removed the fake logs and natural gas rod, and there are options abound at all sorts of different pricepoints.
I don't want an insert.

These guys make a tube design that IMO marries a decent aesthetic w/the promise of high heat output. The price is about half without the ugly blower and manifold. It's still a hefty chunk of change, and the it has vudu vibes about it. There are other offerings online, all seemingly from different levels of professional redneck.

More traditional, affordable with more aesthetics but with potentially less heat are these vertical stacks along with a giant pane of metal in the back.

Anyone with experience using these products?

 

[SS396driver]

First I would have professional look at your fireplace and flue . If it’s one of the newer zero clearance gas units it’s not suited for burning wood

 

[SS396driver]

I should add that if your good to go with wood then a good quality set of glass doors . Keeps the fireplace from sucking out all the heated air from the room . Fireplaces are nice but as it goes out no heat produced and now it’s sucking huge amounts of heated air out of the house

 

[Fried Chicken]

First I would have professional look at your fireplace and flue . If it’s one of the newer zero clearance gas units it’s not suited for burning wood

No issues there, it's a masonry fireplace built in 1996

I should add that if your good to go with wood then a good quality set of glass doors . Keeps the fireplace from sucking out all the heated air from the room . Fireplaces are nice but as it goes out no heat produced and now it’s sucking huge amounts of heated air out of the house

It's not a problem. We don't have serious heating needs in Texas, and I'm mostly interested in having a nice crackling fireplace. That said, I'm still not interested in merely heating the chimney.

 

[SS396driver]

You said no insert so your left with having only a few options . My parents had one of those half circle pipe things in the fireplace in the 70s . Worked ok but they did changed to glass doors and the heat was much more effective in that room . The nice things about a good quality set is you can close them while the fire is burning so you have a quasi insert . And you can leave them open to have a nice crackling fire then close them when you leave the room or go to bed . An open fireplace will draw a lot of heat out of the house after the fire dies .

 

[Fried Chicken]

You said no insert so your left with having only a few options . My parents had one of those half circle pipe things in the fireplace in the 70s . Worked ok but they did changed to glass doors and the heat was much more effective in that room . The nice things about a good quality set is you can close them while the fire is burning so you have a quasi insert . And you can leave them open to have a nice crackling fire then close them when you leave the room or go to bed . An open fireplace will draw a lot of heat out of the house after the fire dies .

I'll look into the glass doors. I thought they could only be installed along with an insert.
They would still benefit from one of the vertical firewood racks? I have heard the new glass doors are incredible for what they're capable of

 

[stihlaficionado]

Friends overseas ask me what America is like. I don't think I've found a better summation than "we have fireplaces designed to NOT heat the home".
Here's mine:

View attachment 1209843
Now I'm looking at options to rectify this since I removed the fake logs and natural gas rod, and there are options abound at all sorts of different pricepoints.
I don't want an insert.

These guys make a tube design that IMO marries a decent aesthetic w/the promise of high heat output. The price is about half without the ugly blower and manifold. It's still a hefty chunk of change, and the it has vudu vibes about it. There are other offerings online, all seemingly from different levels of professional redneck.

More traditional, affordable with more aesthetics but with potentially less heat are these vertical stacks along with a giant pane of metal in the back.

Anyone with experience using these products?

We had a Preway fireplace many moons ago, before I put in a ZC high efficiency fireplace
I used a cast iron fireback, that sat just behind the grate. Once hot it threw out a decent amount of heat.

This is what a fireback looks like

You'll need to upgrade to an insert to get good heat that lasts.
ZC's are not meant to go into masonry fireplaces. They offer versatility, usually 2-3 inches standoff from framing. It's like having a UL 127 casing around a fireplace.

 

[Hermio]

If you can accept a quiet blower, there are manufacturers that make forced air exchangers that go under glass doors and get heat from the coals, which are hotter than the flames. When we had a normal fireplace, we installed one and glass doors, and it put out a lot of heat. One brand is Airculator. Here is a link to another: https://hastyheat.com/collections/2...changer-works-with-standard-glass-door-frames
Now we have a Tulikivi unit, which is more efficient than any woodstove or normal fireplace, but it costs $$$$ and must be built into the house. (Ours weighs 9000#)

 

[muddy42]

First of all you need to recognise that open fires are always less efficient than a stove. Stoves reburn the gasses and extract more heat from the gasses before they go up the chimney. So all things being equal open fires need more fuel. I only say this because I've had people raise the lack of heat complaint about open fires before, mostly when they have to buy there own wood. If you collect it yourself this is less of an issue.

Then modern builders often don't get the dynamics right. I can't see the flue but maybe it could be too wide for the size of the fireplace opening? The fireplace looks fairly deep. You could try bringing the fire forward to radiate more heat into the room. Plus that fireguard looks like overkill and will be blocking a lot of heat.

 

[Hermio]

First of all you need to recognise that open fires are always less efficient than a stove. Stoves reburn the gasses and extract more heat from the gasses before they go up the chimney. So all things being equal open fires need more fuel. I only say this because I've had people raise the lack of heat complaint about open fires before, mostly when they have to buy there own wood. If you collect it yourself this is less of an issue.

Then modern builders often don't get the dynamics right. I can't see the flue but maybe it could be too wide for the size of the fireplace opening? The fireplace looks fairly deep. You could try bringing the fire forward to radiate more heat into the room. Plus that fireguard looks like overkill and will be blocking a lot of heat.

Most open fireplaces actually have negative efficiency. Glass doors help a lot, but without a heat exchanger, they will still not provide all that much heat.

 

[muddy42]

Most open fireplaces actually have negative efficiency. Glass doors help a lot, but without a heat exchanger, they will still not provide all that much heat.

I'm never really sure how negative efficiency could be measured? Does that mean if I light a fire it sucks in warm air from elsewhere in the house and sends it up the chimney?

I live in a Victorian single glazed house, designed to be heated by wood - wood biomass boiler, stoves or open fires. When I light an open fire (and I do most nights) the important thing to me is the sitting room gets very hot very quickly and looks nice. If this makes other areas of the house cooler I'm not sure I care that much. My wood is free.

 

[Hermio]

I'm never really sure how negative efficiency could be measured? Does that mean if I light a fire it sucks in warm air from elsewhere in the house and sends it up the chimney?

I live in a Victorian single glazed house, designed to be heated by wood - wood biomass boiler, stoves or open fires. When I light an open fire (and I do most nights) the important thing to me is the sitting room gets very hot very quickly and looks nice. If this makes other areas of the house cooler I'm not sure I care that much. My wood is free.

That is exactly what it means. An open fireplace moves a huge amount of air up the chimney. This is especially true if the firebox is deep. In some older homes, the firebox was shallow and the fire was built very close to the front of the fireplace. This was much more efficient, as it allowed the radiant heat to get into the room. But only radiant heat gets out. With woodstoves and heat exchange fireplaces, heat from the flames and/or coals is also partially recovered.

 

[telecasterfool]

Before I installed a wood stove, I used my fireplace quite a bit and tried to get the most heat from it. I purchased four items from Grate Wall of Fire. A 3/4" fireback for the back, two 1/2" firebacks for the angled sides, and one of their fireplace grates. I also removed the screen, which blocks a lot of heat. After starting the fire, it would take about an hour for the entire fireplace to get hot and start kicking out the heat. It would make the room it was in very warm, and the rest of the house very cold, as air is sucked up the chimney. Ask questions if you want more info.

 

[Fried Chicken]

Before I installed a wood stove, I used my fireplace quite a bit and tried to get the most heat from it. I purchased four items from Grate Wall of Fire. A 3/4" fireback for the back, two 1/2" firebacks for the angled sides, and one of their fireplace grates. I also removed the screen, which blocks a lot of heat. After starting the fire, it would take about an hour for the entire fireplace to get hot and start kicking out the heat. It would make the room it was in very warm, and the rest of the house very cold, as air is sucked up the chimney. Ask questions if you want more info.

Did the grate wall of fire and firebacks make much of a difference?