Fireplaces- How many enjoy them for what they are for?

[Brandy]

Dam bud that's Beautiful place you Got there !

Thanks! The stone is from our property and the mantle is a hand chopped barn rafter center section and is circa 1880.

 

[Brandy]

Sizing is the key, I was fortunate enough to buy mine from a company that knew what they were talking about. They sized it small so running wide open (Not creating creosote) keeps the living room very comfy but never to hot. My other advantage is working in the lumber industry, $150 will get a knuckle boom load of trees which last 3 years. I cut it up whenever I have spare time then rent a log splitter for 1 day and I'm set for 3 years. There's a huge difference in wood consumption just by buying a effecient woodburner, mine doesn't even have an ash pan and burns it to a powder that only needs emptied every 2 weeks. Paying more up front saves tons of labor.

The Harmon will burn120 lbs of wood pellets before the ash pan needs to be dumped. About every two to three days. The pan is 20 x 10 x 4 inchs.

 

[65hemi]

We use ours mainly when company is over, and Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is my job to start and maintain the fire for the evening. It is a real wood fireplace not a new gas unit. It heats up the main room real nice but then the heat shuts off the thermostat and the rest of the house gets cold. Regardless, it is nice on cold winter nights.

 

[Brandy]

We use ours mainly when company is over, and Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is my job to start and maintain the fire for the evening. It is a real wood fireplace not a new gas unit. It heats up the main room real nice but then the heat shuts off the thermostat and rest of the house gets cold.

Ours was a real fireplace but we got the Harmon for just that reason. Is has the blower to push heat out into the house and I installed a 52" fan in the livingroom to push the heat down so it gets blown into the kitchen and around the corner to the back bedroom and bathroom. The livingroom has a balcony and loft ceiling open all the way up. The heat gets trapped up there without the fan.

 

[Don selleck]

I have a propane furnace was gonna put in a wood burner my wife didn't want mess, can't blame her neither did I, but my propane bill was $3400 a year which includes my stove and hot water that was at $1.50 a gallon delivered. bought a wood pellet burner for 2400 cost 700 a year to heat my house with pellets, propane bill dropped to about 800 a year. now house is toasty warm and no stink with pellet burner. 30 to 50 degree days equals 1/2 bag pellets up to 2 bags a day when it gets around zero. 2 years later after purchase they gouged everyone on propane i paid $5.50 a gallon, I asked delivery guy what was the highest he saw, he said $8.15 a gallon. my pellet burner has paid for itself many times over one of the best investments I've made in my home. no propane = more parts for charger.

 

[YY1]

Fireplace in FL is an interesting discussion.

My house actually has two. One in the LR and one in the MBR.

I used to use the hell out of them. I have a tall ceiling in the living room, and in the "winter" the fire place made up the difference in temp between the rest of the house with standard ceilings and the LR, where the heat all went to the top.

We don't use them much anymore because my wife has a sensitive nose and gets bothered by the smoke and particles.

Interesting side note- I've always wanted a house with secret passages. In the movies, those are usually behind the fireplace or the bookcase.

Our TV is in front of the fireplace and we have a large wood bookcase in my wife's studio that sits out a bit from the wall.

Our cats love to go behind the TV into the empty fireplace, and get in behind the bookcase.

Turns out I have cat secret passages...and they're in the customary locations!

Now If only I could engineer a way for them to connect.....

 

[Ranger16]

Ours burns all winter unless the wife doesn't do her part and lets it go out then as punishment it's a day before I re lite it haha. Amazes me that after all these years she still won't use the bellow, puts logs against the door and can't properly stack it for a long burn.

I don't let my wife play with fire.

 

[Auggie56]

Yeah, I stack the wood after it's dumped off, then stack it next to the patio door in the fall. From there ninety-five percent of the time I build the fire and clean out the ashes. She likes to have a fire which is kinda nice. But even though it's an airtight it sucks the heat from the rest of the house.