Modifications can keep fireplace's heat from going up in smoke

There's more to heating a room than tossing another log on the fire.

Ron Vas, president/owner of Atlas Clay & Metal on the North Side, knows nothing quite tops the aesthetics of a nicely burning open fire.

But Walt Sedlock, owner of the House to Home Fireplace Shoppe in Jeannette and Monroeville, says fireplaces are "mostly a decorative product, with 90 percent of the heat going up the chimney."

Homebuilder Jerry Horn of Franklin Park admits that, but says efficient use of a well-designed fireplace will offset the heat loss.

Current interest in heating with wood to ease increasing energy costs has led many buyers to compare the benefits of fireplaces vs. stoves.

"Stoves are more efficient and safer," says Tyffanee Hall, manager of Hall's Pools & Fireplaces in Lower Burrell.

More people are interested in stoves and fireplace inserts that make burning wood more efficient, says Mike Buckiso, vice president of operations for Fireplace & Patioplace.

"I'm doing five estimates a day on them," he says. "Last year I did two a week."

Vas knows there are problems with fireplace heating, even if the appearance of the open flame is important to many people.

So, he says, a "fireplace insert is the way to go." With an insert, drafts to feed the fire are pulled from outside, not from the heated air of the room, thus making that aspect of heating more efficient.

The inserts also have fans that blow heated air into the room, creating more warmth than the average fireplace, he adds.

Vas also urges those investigating fireplaces to be aware of the advantages of the Rumford-style units. With shallow fireboxes and slanted walls, Rumford fireplaces send more heat into the room than rectangular ones, he says.

Horn, owner of Jerry Horn Construction Inc., has gone those directions with the fireplace in his family room. It has a vent to pull air from the outside and is of a shallow, slanted construction to cast heat into the room.

Because of that, he heats that room with the fireplace from November through March every year.

"If you get used to doing it all the time, you can do it right," he says. He adds that having an ash dump built into the fireplace, as was done with his, means cleaning the firebox is easier. It eliminates the task of hauling ash through the house for disposal.

Vas also points out "zero-clearance fireplaces" as another positive heater. They can be added to a room without any need for a hearth or a chimney, hence the name. Good drafting and ventilation make them as efficient as a fireplace can be, he says.

Sedlock advocates wood-burning stoves for better warmth, saying they are 75 percent to 77 percent efficient in producing heat from fuel sources. But he accepts fireplace inserts as an acceptable way of getting more heat from the hearth. Stoves and insert projects each cost about $3,000, he estimates, making them viable rivals.

Jim Kraynick of Monroeville recently had his second insert installed in his home, saying the efficiency was hard to beat.

Buckiso also speaks out in favor of pellet stoves, which are woodstove-like devices that burn pellets made of crushed wood, shells and other naturally replaceable items. He says they might actually be the most efficient heating device.

But because the pellets are fed into the burning area with an auger, electricity is needed to operate the mechanics, That can be a drawback, he says, along with a current run on pellets, making them hard to find. Many of them are ending up in Europe, where pellet use is popular, he says.

Despite the increasing efficiency in stoves and other heating devices, Buckiso says there is a simple fact of life in winter warmth.

"It's hard to get people away from good ol' gas heat," he says.