Fireplaces won't be able to heat a room as well as a wood stove is able to, but you'll still feel warmth sitting nearer to an open fire. Wood burning fireplaces aren't known for their ability to generate large amounts of heat for a room.
Use the Damper to Turn Up the Heat
Make sure to fully open the damper when starting the fire. When you have a great fire going, slightly close the damper to prevent excess heat from escaping. If the room still isn't warm enough, close the damper a little bit more. This will enhance your heating output.
Many fireplaces, stoves and inserts are capable of heating 2000-3000 square feet of well insulated space. These are normally rated by BTU/output and by the cubic foot size of the firebox. The larger the firebox, the more wood it will hold. The longer the wood will last, the more heat is produced.
While some people love the authenticity of a wood-burning fireplace, it is the least efficient method to heat your home. A traditional masonry chimney and wood-burning fireplace loses 80-90% of the heat up the chimney. Plus, additional air inside your home is also pulled up and out through the chimney.
Overall, gas fireplaces are highly efficient when it comes to heating a room. Once a fire has been burning for some time, it's likely to heat a room rather quickly. The type of gas fireplace you have is likely to affect the fireplace's ability to heat a room efficiently.
On its own, a wood burning fireplace is the least efficient of all fireplaces for producing heat. In most cases, it only creates a very small amount of heat. However, due to the amount of heat that is pulled out through the chimney in a wood burning fireplace, it can surprisingly decrease the heat in your home.
While each type of fireplace has its own advantages that may work better for your needs, if you just want something that's simple to use, not too expensive or tricky to maintain and provides a good amount of heat output, a gas-burning fireplace is your winner.
Overall, a furnace is the better choice for heat as it's more efficient and can distribute the heat evenly throughout the house via air ducts. However, furnaces can be more expensive to install and run. On the other hand, fireplaces have a tough time heating up a home and usually need to be run alongside a furnace.
A modern furnace is more efficient in turning gas into heat than a gas fireplace. This means that although a furnace costs more to run per hour than a gas fireplace, it turns more of that energy into heat and can warm a whole house rather than a single room.
Open fireplaces are not a very efficient source of heat for a home and can be as low as 10% efficient. Much of the heat generated by an open fire can be lost up the chimney instead of being used to heat a room. The draft can also pull heat out of the room and potentially make a house colder.
The best brands of Fireplaces typically offer a 'heat transfer kit' or 'forced air kit'. That option is a must if you want to heat your entire house with the fireplace! It allows for a much better heat distribution throughout the house.
Because hot air rises, most of the heat produced by the fire escapes through the chimney. Not only that, the hot air creates an updraft that sucks warm out out of the room.
Place the box fan on low, facing INTO the space where your fireplace is, blowing the cool air at the unit. This will cause a convection reaction and the hot air will be forced away from the burning unit. If in a small room, the hot air will be moving out the door into larger spaces in no time.
The cost of heating your home with gas (British Gas)
Gas is generally much the cheapest form of heating, but its cost depends on a number of factors, including your supplier, tariff and boiler.
Do firebacks really work? The effect of a fireback behind a fire is immediately tangible. A fire without a fireback hardly radiates any warmth, while a fire with a fireback very much does so. There is more radiation if the fireplace fireback is larger or thicker, and a thicker fireback retains heat longer.
How much gas does a gas fireplace use? A standard 20,000 BTU gas fireplace will use about 20 cubic feet of natural gas per hour. Given that price of natural gas is about $1.09 per 100 cubic feet, running a standard-sized gas fireplace will cost about $0.22/hour at 100% heating output.
A--Although they add a nice warm glow to a room, a fireplace, especially a wood-burning fireplace, usually draws more heat out of a home than it adds. Wood-burning fireplaces are mostly for aesthetics, and the truth is if you make them energy efficient, you'll lose some of those aesthetics.
They are different appliances meant for different needs. If your whole family is bundled up in the living room for a move, go ahead and turn on the fireplace. However, if your family is spread out around the house or if the temperature falls very low, a furnace will be your more efficient and effective option.
Electric fireplaces are cheaper in cost and installation compared to their gas-burning counterparts. While most electric fireplaces do not heat a room as fast as a gas fireplace, they are cheaper to run compared to other types of fireplaces.
Generally speaking, gas fireplaces can produce anywhere from 8,000-60,000 BTUs, and wood burning fireplaces range from 20,000-40,000 BTUs. Therefore, either type of fireplace can do the job in most cases.
Above: According to the EPA, traditional wood-burning fireplaces emit 28 pounds of particulants per MMBTU (one million BTUs) of heat output as opposed to natural gas, which produces up to 99 percent less (about 0.28 pounds per MMBTU).
Wood burning features look and feel more traditional. You can get more heat from wood because it burns hotter than both propane and natural gas. This also means that outdoor cooking is easier to accomplish with wood burning applications than gas ones.
Fireplaces can make you sleepy by generating warmth that relaxes your muscles and from the white noise generated by the burning firewood. Fires are also usually lit at nighttime, after the last meal of the day has been consumed and darkness has fallen, which also both trigger your body to go to sleep.
How does it work? Chimneys act like giant hoovers, sucking air out of your home. This causes cold air to be pulled in from other gaps, causing the cold draughts we notice. The Chimney Balloon effectively blocks the chimney, stopping warm air from escaping and stopping cold air from getting in.