I've never used one (an indoor one atleast) But the house I bought has one.

I know I need to get it cleaned/inspected, any idea what that costs?

Can a fireplace be used to supplement the furnace? (i've got a great supply of kiln dried hardwood)

 

About the only way it can be used as a suplement is if the combustion chamber air id brought in from outside and no inside air goes up the flue. More for mood than heat.

 

I had a fireplace with a large fire box that let all the heat go up the flue but... my parents had a small firebox and it would burn you out of the house no need for the furnace. The only other thing you could do is add a wood stove to the box and that would definitely supplement the furnace.
Definitely get it cleaned though. nothing is worse than a chimney fire.

 

I've heated with wood for years. It's my primary heat source, the furnace is for backup.

For efficient heat, you have a couple of options. The first and cheapest is to get glass doors that install in the opening:

http://www.countryflame.com/units/fpd-main.html

The other is to get a fireplace insert, like a woodstove that fits into the fireplace opening:

http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/bigpacin.htm

Either of these would be an improvement over the standard fireplace with a simple spark screen, and still provide the ambiance of an open fire. Looking forward to lighting off the stove in my house for the first time this season...any day now...!

 

Tiger, so basicly, the doors, or the stove would radiat the heat, where as a plain old fireplace would just let the heat escape?

I've also read online that a window should be opened to prevent the house filling with smoke, Is this true?

 

The only thing I can offer is a suggestion on fireplace safety. Ashes don't go in the garbage. I've known 4 or 5 people that have burned their houses down when the threw out "cold" ashes. I'd recommend getting a metal can of some sort to put the ashes in. Do not store it on a wooden floor.

 

The house will only fill up with smoke if the damper in the chimney is closed. I have done this

Just make sure the damper is open and you are good to go. opening the windows would kinda defeat the purpose

 

What Chris said...

And yes, that's basically it. The doors keep the room heat from going back up the chimney, and with ones like I linked to, they improve the efficiency by making the airflow controllable, if installed properly.

 

If you're going to do an insert, I highly recomend a pellet stove. We heated with a wood stove for years, then we ran out of trees that needed to be removed. The pelet stove is much easier than the wood stove. Just dump a bag of pellets in, push the button and it will be pumping heat out in about 5 min. The fire box does need cleaning about once a week, but thats simple. A more thorough cleaning is needed some times, we just had to tear ours down and clean it out completely, because it was so dirty that it would push a cloud of smoke into the room from exhaust passages plugging with soot.

 

Would have to hirte someone to install glass doors?

A pellet stove is a nice idea, but I'd have to bbuy pellets, I can get wood for free.

 

Depends on how handy you are at that sort of thing. If you've got any experience with construction and home repair, you should be able to handle it, but I'd really see what the recommendations by the manufacturer are for the unit you select. Do a Google search for "Fireplace Doors" and click on the image link to select a design you like. Should be able to find a local dealer that way as well.

 

I'm pretty handy and have relatives and freinds in residential construction. I'll start looking now.

 

true, and the price for a pallet has gone up a ton since last year, supposedly because of fuel sur charges, the stove shop we buy from gets their pellets out of canada.

 

we actually thought about making pellets (we mill hardwood flooring)

 

Get it inspected to stay on the safe side.

We don't really use our fireplace for primary heat though. Not even secondary. Mostly just for the mood, and even then, we got those little presto logs.

Actually though, just a few days ago, I noticed our house was a bit chilly, and we had a bunch of junk mail and newspapers piling up. I wasn't about to turn the furnace on to feel heat in a half hour, I was cold now. So up in smoke went the junk mail and newspapers. That's how I get rid of all of our sensitive documents.