Fuzzy Bus

Like most people, I’ve lived around fireplaces all my life — living in the Northwest, it’s practically a necessity, but I’ve never given much thought to the actual parts of a fireplace or its construction.  I’d never even considered how a wood insert might transform a drafty fireplace into a really energy efficient heater for the home.   As the winter months are fast upon us, and because I have a fairly drafty fireplace that doesn’t get much use now, I took a look around at what was available:

Wood inserts fit around or in the fireplace, have a glass front, and a fan that you can adjust to stream the heated air into the room through vents.  I could see immediately how this would improve the heating efficiency of any fireplace.  Heating efficiency is another term I had to learn: It means BTUs or British Thermal Units, and there’s a recommended amount for the square footage in a fireplace; that amount would be about 25 to 30 BTUs for every square foot of space.   So, let’s say, I install an insert for a wood burning stove, that’s going to mean that I’ll have about 75 per cent efficiency as opposed to the 25 per cent efficiency one gets with an open fireplace.  Obviously, if you jump up 50 per cent in efficiency, inserts are going to save you a great deal of time and money (time it takes to heat the room; money it takes to purchase the wood, etcetera).

I’m also learning that there are different types of inserts, such as a pellet stove, which burn compact pellets.  The pellets are made the byproducts of wood waste, things like hulls of wheat and other “biomass.”  Whatever it does, it’s supposed to be really friendly for the environment.  The more I investigate the wood inserts, the more I’m convinced I’m going to get one…  some come with a cooking top, and I really like the kind of primeval idea of cooking a meal in a fireplace.

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