21Mar
How Wood Inserts Add Style and Efficiency to Your Home
Fireplaces are a great addition to any home. You get the ambiance of a crackling fire, and the ability to turn off your furnace every now and then to save money on monthly heating bills. But if you have a traditional masonry fireplace, you may not be saving as much as you think.
Many homeowners will attempt to heat their homes using a wood burning masonry fireplace, then realize that most of the heat rises up and out of the chimney instead of into their homes. This causes them to use their furnaces as well, defeating the purpose of using the fireplace in the first place.
Wood inserts can upgrade your current fireplace, boosting efficiency, while adding a little style to your home in the process. Here’s how:
The Evolution of Efficient Wood Inserts
Wood inserts are wood burning stoves designed to fit inside of your pre-existing masonry fireplace. The addition of the wood stove funnels all heat into your home, preventing it from escaping through the chimney. This makes it a much more efficient option.
So why doesn’t everyone opt for this upgrade? When wood inserts were originally introduced, they were not as secure. Poor ventilation made them inefficient, and in some cases dangerous. Over the years, stainless steel chimney liners were designed to solve these issues.
The first liner created, called a direct connect, proved to be too short and did not allow a secure connection to the fireplace base. This set up made inserts hard to light, and even harder to maintain because they needed to be removed from the fireplace to be cleaned.
This explains why many unknowing homeowners wouldn’t want to install wood inserts. Ottawa homeowners should know that modern day inserts are much more sophisticated than their older counterparts. Today’s inserts include steel liners that run up the full length of the chimney allowing proper ventilation. The inserts are also securely connected to the fireplace base.
Modern inserts never need to be removed, and can be cleaned by inserting a brush through the flue. Making your fireplace much more efficient, and cost-effective.
Adding A Little Flair to Your Fire
Masonry fireplaces are beautiful, but can offset the look of your home. Masonry fireplaces naturally have a rustic look, and if your home has a more modern vibe, it can stick out like a sore thumb. The surrounding steel shell of an insert comes in a variety of styles and offers a more polished look for your home.
So not only do wood inserts turn your current fireplace into an efficient heat source, they give your fireplace a whole new, modernized style.