Sitting near a blazing fire on a cold, wintery day, you probably don't realize that the fireplace is one of the most inefficient heat sources you can possibly use. It literally sends money right up the chimney in the form of volumes of warm air that your furnace heated. A fire in a fireplace can exhaust as much as 24,000 cubic feet of air per hour to the outside, and that air has to be replaced by cold air coming into the house from the outside. The heating system must then warm up this air, which is then exhausted through your chimney. If you use your conventional fireplace while your central heating system is on, these tips can help reduce energy losses.

What you can do:

• If the fireplace is never used, plug and seal the chimney flue.
• Keep your fireplace damper closed unless a fire is going. Keeping the damper open is like keeping a very large window wide open during the winter; it allows warm air to go right up the chimney.
• Check the seal on the flue damper and make it as snug as possible.
• When you use the fireplace, reduce heat loss by closing the doors leading into the room where the fireplace is and open slightly--approximately 1 inch-- the nearest window to the fireplace. Alternatively if there are dampers in the bottom of the firebox those can be opened (instead of opening the window). Lower the thermostat setting to 50° F.
• Install tempered glass fireplace doors.
• Install a heat-air exchange system that blows warmed air back into the room.
• Use grates made of C-shaped metal tubes to draw cool room air into the fireplace and circulate warm air back into the room.
• Caulk around the fireplace hearth.

Savings:

• Keeping your fireplace damper closed can save 4%-5% of your heating costs each year.
• Adding fireplace doors can save an additional 3%-4% per year on your heating bill.
• Adding a heat exchange unit can add greatly to the comfort of the room in which the fireplace is located and if this enables most of the rest of the house to be kept at a much lower temperature the heat exchange unit can help save several hundred dollars in heating costs.
  

Learn more on our chimney page.