Colder Climes and Hotter Wood Inserts
When we moved to the Northeast and its colder climes, my wife decided we needed a wood burning insert for our new home and new fireplace, so I took the plunge and purchased one, unsure of how it might change the efficiency with which we heated the home. I’m writing this now because, after a year of burning wood in the insert, I want to tell people exactly how well these things work! I have a three story house, with about 2000 square feet. This little insert works wonders, keeping the ground floor in the mid-seventies, and the second floor, where we sleep, at about seventy degrees. It’s a little cooler on the third floor, but we use that generally for crafts work. For the most part, even when the temperature outside dove down to the low twenties, the house was quite warm, and our other source of heat, the oil boiler, didn’t come on at all.
There’s a number of fireplace inserts, wood, gas or pellet, but I preferred the wood, but I understand most of them work equally well. They’re not only efficient, but they lower the pollutants in the air. When I’m outside, I can see the black smoke from my next-door neighbor’s chimney, while my chimney barely has any smoke at all. At least, it’s hard to notice. During the day, I keep the insert firebox at about 350 to 400 degrees, controlling the temperature in the house with the speed of the fan. At night, I use larger pieces of wood, and keep the insert at 400 degrees, damped down the whole way. In the morning, the downstairs might be sixty-four or sixty-eight degrees, with enough coals left to start up the fire pretty quick.
I find the fan quiet and remarkably efficient. Everyone who comes over comments on how warm the place is, astonished at the lasting time for a few sticks of wood. We’ve been completely happy with this new addition to our fireplace. I’m not sure why we waited so long!
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