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by
Martin Zibauer
photos by Roger Yip |
AT THE HEARTH OF THINGS |
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Cozy up your home with a clean and efficient gas fireplace |
It’s hard to give up an old wood fireplace. The
smell, the crackle, the fun of poking at the fire—they
all make a home feel more inviting. But then there are the downsides.
Traditional fireplaces are not very efficient heat sources.
Cleaning up ashes, cutting and bringing in wood, and worrying
about fire hazards are other reasons many homeowners look for
alternatives, such as fireplace inserts.
Think of a fireplace insert as
a closed box—really a kind of stove—that fits inside
an existing fireplace. There are wood-burning inserts, which
maintain some of the wood-fire romance but add efficiency, while
pellet fuel inserts burn what looks like oversized rabbit droppings
consisting of wastewood and other biomass. Electrical inserts,
simple to install, are more for aesthetics than efficient heat.
But the most popular type, especially in homes that already
use gas for heating and cooking, are gas-burning inserts.
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| LOWER
ENERGY BILLS |
According
to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, these
are some of the features of the most energy-efficient
gas fireplaces:
•
a high Annual Fireplace Efficiency(AFE)
rating
•
direct venting
•
an intermittent electronic ignition
system, a pilot light that’s easy to turn
off and relight, or a two-stage pilot
•
a
radiation-transparent ceramic glass front
•
a quiet “squirrel cage”-type
circulating fan
•
a secondary heat exchanger
•
insulated outer casing
•
the ability to turn the heat down |
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In this installation,
in a city home built in the 1920s, a zero-clearance gas insert
was the homeowner’s clear choice. The existing fireplace
hadn’t been used in years and would have required a lot
of work to make it safe for a wood fire. Wood was more expensive,
and more trouble, than the homeowner wanted.
Because each installation is different,
needing an experienced eye and a licensed gas fitter, putting
in a gas fireplace insert is not really a do-it-yourself project,
even though our expert, Wes Willard of Miles Industries, made
it look easy. But you can do a lot of the prep work on your
own. Before this insert could go in, for example, the fireplace
surround needed some cosmetic surgery. The original brick had
been clumsily repaired and coated with what looked like leftover
cake icing. A simple drywall surround is an easy do-it-yourself
solution that complements the sleek, modern renovation that’s
in progress in the rest of the house. If future owners decide
to redecorate, they’ll have a ready framework for a more
traditional mantel and surround.
Is it Efficient?
No and yes. No, if energy efficiency is your only priority.
In that case, first upgrade or at least tune up your home furnace,
then block off the fireplace, never to be used again.
But if you want to use your fireplace,
especially as a zone heater, a gas insert makes sense. You’ll
save energy if you use the smaller gas insert instead of firing
up the main furnace, particularly in spring and fall.
Choosing a fireplace will depend
on your budget and your tastes. You’ll find just about
any style, from Italian Renaissance to Victorian to High Modernism—even
Southwest kiva fireplaces that will look perfect in your pueblo.
But if you want your fireplace for supplementary heating, look
for substance as well as style—a fireplace that’s
labelled as “heater-rated” is more efficient than
one that is described as “decorative.” Manufacturers
and testing agencies assume a heater-rated fireplace insert
will be turned on much longer, so these inserts are built and
tested to higher standards than decorative models.
Right-sizing
The height, width and depth of the existing firebox opening
can limit your choice of insert, simply because altering the
size of the firebox is a big masonry job. Fortunately, most
fireplace manufacturers offer models in several sizes.
A gas insert also has to be right-sized—not
too big and not too small—for the space it will heat.
Too little output, and it can’t push out enough heat;
too much and it will overheat the room, or cycle on and off
too often to be efficient. While there are rough rules-of-thumb
to estimate output needs, Steve Haagmans, eastern division manager
for Miles Industries, manufacturer of Valor gas fireplaces,
recommends against relying on them: “There are just too
many variables—ceiling height, party walls, windows, doors
and insulation levels.” Calculators such as the one at
the Valor site, www.valorflame.com,
or at www.hearth.com,
include some of these variables and are therefore more accurate.
For even more precision, a heating contractor can calculate
a customized “modified heat loss” for your home.
But no matter what size the fireplace,
don’t count on it to heat all the rooms in a typical house;
it simply can’t move that much heat around that far.
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GUIDE |
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