Pardon the pun, but fireplaces are hot. Nearly every new single-family home, condominium and townhouse that’s built today features a fireplace, and many feature more than one.
And folks shopping for older homes often list a fireplace as one of their top priorities.
When shopping for a fireplace, most homeowners pick a traditional wood-burning unit. And most buyers have visions of how a crackling fire will warm a room on a cold winter’s night.
But if they’re looking for energy efficiency, they’ll have to look somewhere else.
“People need to understand that a fireplace is a decorative appliance,” said John Crouch, director of government relations for the Hearth Products Association, an industry group for fireplace manufacturers.
A natural gas-burning fireplace provides a slight advantage in energy efficiency over a wood-burning unit. But both are energy losers, drawing out more warmed air from a house than they provide.
In other words, it costs a homeowner money to run a fireplace, even if the wood is free.
“A fireplace is not a heating device,” said Crouch. “Instead, a lot of heat goes up the chimney, including heat produced by your furnace.”
About the only time a fireplace would truly produce heat is if a furnace or boiler became inoperable because of a power outage. But the radiant heat emitted by a fireplace would only warm the room in which it’s located, and not the entire house.
There are other factors to consider when opting for a wood-burning fireplace.
For example, a wood-burning fireplace wins hands down when it comes to the beauty of the flame produced.
“An authentic wood fire is a fundamentally random event,” said Crouch. “With a wood-burning fire, you get things like the fire popping and crackling and logs collapsing. In a culture where everything is standard, it’s fun to have something that’s random.”
“There is an atmosphere that is created with a wood-burning fireplace,” said Matt Heitz, president of Chicago Firewood Inc., at 1300 N. Halsted St. “The sound of a wood-burning fireplace is very important, and so is the aroma. People want that.”
And, of course, you can always roast a marshmallow in a wood-burning fireplace.
Those of some of the pluses.
Now here are some of the minuses.
While you can make a wood-burning fireplace more energy efficient by placing tightly sealed glass doors in front of the fireplace, it will never burn as efficiently as a gas fireplace.
According to U.S. Department of Energy research, a wood-burning fireplace can exhaust up to 24,000 cubic feet of air per hour to the outdoors, requiring your furnace or boiler to heat that much cool air.
Wood also burns dirtier than natural gas, putting more pollutants into the atmosphere.
You can, however, make a wood-burning fireplace less energy wasteful by building a heat exchanger into it. That returns some of the heat lost to the chimney back into the room. But not much.
Wood-burning fireplaces also require more labor to operate than natural gas-fueled fireplaces.
“Bringing wood in is no easy task, especially if you live on the third floor,” notes Heitz.
And you’ve got to lug the wood to your home, or have it delivered. Once there, the wood needs to be stored in a fairly dry place.
A natural gas fireplace can be turned on literally with the flick of a switch.
A wood-burning fire, on the other hand, needs to be lit, often with kindling. Some wood-burning fireplaces may have a gas ignition device built in.
However, all wood-burning fireplaces need to be cleaned out, and ashes need to be removed.
A wood-burning fire also needs to be tended. You’ll need to throw more wood on the fire, depending upon how long and how brilliantly you want it to burn. And because a wood-burning fire pops and crackles, you’ll need to install at least a metal screen in front of the flames.
And because you can’t shut a wood-burning fire off instantly, as you can a natural gas fire, you’ll also need to make a commitment to a wood fire.
“If you’re good, you can set up a 30-minute fire,” said Heitz, “but nothing shorter than that.”
It’s also unwise to leave a home–even for a few minutes–when a wood fire is burning.
And if you use a wood-burning fireplace on a regular basis, it will have to be maintained more often than a natural gas fireplace.
“People are somewhat naive as to how much maintenance a wood-burning fireplace needs,” said Heitz. “The flue will need to be cleaned every one to three years.”
“And you should also have your chimney checked to make sure there are no problems there,” said Crouch.
Despite the hardships that come with wood-burning fireplaces, both Crouch and Heitz expect their popularity to continue.
“As people add more than one fireplace to their home, we’re seeing wood-burning fireplaces in the public areas–such as living rooms–and gas-burning fireplaces in private areas such as bedrooms,” said Crouch. “There’s something about the authenticity of a wood-burning fireplace in a living room or family room, especially if it’s next to, say, some patio doors.”
If you’re serious about energy efficiency, you should look into a wood-burning stove or fireplace inserts, Crouch advised. Thanks to sealed doors with thick gaskets, these devices waste little of the warm air heated by your furnace.
The downside to these devices is that they aren’t as romantic as an open fireplace.
“The fire burns more slowly and more moderately,” said Crouch. “And you’re still going to get more heat from your furnace than a wood-burning stove.”
PSST! WOOD’S THE SECRET
Here’s a secret for those who own wood-burning fireplaces: It’s the firewood that really makes the fire.
Firewood, for example, needs to be seasoned. About a quarter to as much as half of the weight of freshly cut wood is water.
That means that after the fresh wood is cut into 4- to 6-inch-thick pieces, it needs to be dried out by the sun and the wind for about a year, said Matt Heitz, president of Chicago Firewood Inc., a firewood outlet at 1300 N. Halsted St.
Seasoned firewood is not only easier to burn, it also generates more heat and burns cleaner.
“If you cut down a tree and throw it into a fireplace, the wood won’t burn or the existing fire will be retarded because of the amount of sap in that wood,” he said.
Green wood will not only burn unevenly but it will hiss, smoke and produce a lot of steam. Burning fresh wood will also result in more creosote–a sticky, tar-like substance that adheres to your fireplace’s flue walls and needs to eventually be removed.
So if you’re planning to go out and down your own firewood from your backyard, you’ll need at least a year for it to season.
You can also buy firewood from an outlet such as Heitz’s. During the winter months, a face cord of wood costs about $130 (it’s about $30 less in the summer).
“A face cord of wood is generally enough wood for two fires a week during the heating season,” said Heitz.
You also can purchase half- and quarter-cords.
A face cord is basically a pile of seasoned firewood that is 4 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 16 inches deep. Unless you have a pickup truck, plan on having it delivered.
Most half-cords, meanwhile, will fit in trunks and the backs of mini-vans but will make a mess.
Most seasoned firewood is usually hardwood–oak, white birch, hard maple and ash. There are also fragrant woods available, including cherry and apple.
Once at home, firewood should be stored in a garage or under a covered area, such as an overhang, Heitz said. If it needs to be stored in an open area, make sure it is exposed to the sun and the wind, which will keep it dry.
“Do not put a tarp over the firewood,” he said. “That will just trap the moisture inside.”
