I Want A Fireplace

[CatsEye]

I was sitting here in my modern home which is all electric and I was thinking about what I would do if the electric were to go off for a while. I have oil lamps and candles but I have no way to cook or to heat the house. I want a fireplace!! I am thinking of building on a family room and building a working fireplace with cooking space and swing outs for hanging dutch ovens and such. I really, really want to remodel. Do you think it would add any value to my place if I were to do this?

 

[rockin]

Sure it would add value to your place. We have a pellet stove and a woodstove. When we lose electric we can still use the woodstove. I love fireplaces - I'm not crazy over the electric fireplace inserts.

 

[Dusty]

We have a very open floor plan in our house. There is a small wood stove upstairs and a large wood stove downstairs. We hardly ever use our furnace.

 

[OldSole]

I have an open fireplace and we love it. I love using wood heat. We hardly every use the electric furnace and I've only got it on to make sure the temperature doesn't fall down too much when we're gone or when we're asleep. I count it as one of the best things we've ever built.

 

[Grandpa]

I've got the wrong fireplace I guess. Mine eats so much wood, I would use a cord a week if I kept it going. furthermore, when I let it go out, it sucks all the heat out of the house up the chimney. If I close the damper then the dying smoke fills the house. But I've got a big wood burner in the basement that takes care of all the heat. It is a poppa fisher sealed stove. Huge with a double deck top so I have two heats for cooking. It also will take up to a 36 inch log, 12 inches in diameter. However, I also keep all the propane jugs full during the winter just in case.

 

[Jonas]

If you do get one make sure they put a flu in it. We had one done and they forgot the flu so all the smoke was going up into the attic. Almost a fire, definitely a lawsuit.

 

[ppine]

I wouldn't worry about the added value. You will definitely save money, and more importantly have peace of mind, and enjoy your fires. By all means forge ahead. In the mean time, find a quiet place in you back yard with a view and create a place for outdoor fires. We have them all year.

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

My dad and I built a steel fireplace insert many years ago for his house- it was modeled after a Buck stove (in fact it used the blower and controls from a Buck Stove), but we modified the design to give a complete double pass of air on all sides of the firebox- man, did that thing ever put out the heat! you could have it running full blast and still put your hand on the outside of it where it was pulling cold air into it. We definitely saved money with it running.

 

[ghostdog]

We have heated our house with nothing but a wood stove for decades now. They don't eat wood like a fireplace and really heat up the place. They make them with windows like ours here and the ambiance is just phenomenal.

 

[jason]

That looks pretty nice. I remember as a kid we had an old wood stove that served as a heat source. I would love one now. We do have a fireplace, but I find it rather small. 2-3 logs is usually all I can put in at once. But it does not get very cold here.

As far as cooking when power goes out that is what the fire pit and cast iron goodes are for. Also have a few grills for wood/charcoal.

 

[JimBob]

I do like fireplace's since they do make a house seem more homey to me, but where I live now, there is pretty much no use for one and I don't think it looks right in a Florida home. If I ever move back up north, I'll have a few of them for sure.

 

[Terry]

I'd go for a woodstove before I put in a regular fireplace. You end up losing a lot of your heat up the chimney with a fireplace. With a stove, as the fire burns it also heats up the stove which will throw off a lot of heat.

 

[ppine]

Modern stoves are a large improvement over the ones even from the 1980s. They are very effecient and create much less air pollution. A fireplace is nice to look at, but very ineffecient at producing heat because you can't control the draft and lose heat up the open chimney. They also pull heat from the room up the chimney.

 

[Needadventure]

We have looked into putting a wood stove or fireplace at our house, and there is just no way to make it happen. I HATE having all electric everything. We do keep plenty of charcoal around so we can cook on the grill if need be, and we also have a coleman stove.

 

[ghostdog]

As far as cooking when power goes out that is what the fire pit and cast iron goodes are for. Also have a few grills for wood/charcoal.

I have known people who are completely helpless if the power goes out. They don't know how to cook a thing or make a hot drink. As you say, fire pit, cast iron cooking and grills are great. They can manage almost any kind of dish. Over the last few years we have been pushing the edge of the envelope while experimenting with our backpacking stoves, white gas, canister and most of all alcohol stoves. It is amazing what one can cook with very little fuel and minimal effort. We also have a side yard fire pit and of course several pieces of cast iron, two being camp Dutch ovens.

It does not hurt to have a wood heating source in the home. We were in Buffalo in October of 2006 visiting relatives and took a several day break backpacking in the Adirondacks. On our return to Buffalo we hit a wet snow storm on the edge of town. We made it back to home base but within a hour everything shut down. The wet snow stuck to the leaves on the trees and huge limbs and trees came crashing down on power lines and everything else. People were without power for over four weeks in much of that town. That is a long time in cold weather to be without a way to heat or cook. No stores or restaurants were open either as the power has really shut things down tight.

 

[jason]

Ghostdog, I'll be getting some more outdoor cooking goodies if I can make it to the civil war re-enactment in Jan. My brother got some stuff there, and they quality was better then we could find in the stores. I'm working on my cooking skills. I can make a good meal, but something more delicate like breads and deserts I do not have much experience with.

The only thing we can really use to heat if the power goes out is the fireplace. It will heat the room and a little further, but where it is put in the house, will not do much else. Wish it was more central.

As we have had a few power outages in our house this year, I'm looking for some of those old oil burning lanterns too. I cannot think of the name right now, but they are glass and have a thick wick. We had them growing up but did not bring them when we moved. Sad really. Lost a lot of good items due to the cost of having to move them.

 

[ponderosa]

As we have had a few power outages in our house this year, I'm looking for some of those old oil burning lanterns too. I cannot think of the name right now, but they are glass and have a thick wick. We had them growing up but did not bring them when we moved. Sad really. Lost a lot of good items due to the cost of having to move them.

Jason, my mother collects those old oil lanterns. She has found dozens of them just browsing around thrift stores and antique shops. They are usually not expensive, unless they are really old or made of nickel or something.

 

[Grandpa]

We have a set of the oil lamps, full, ready to light, and strategically placed on the old oak ice box in the dining room.

 

[Theosus]

Love my fireplace. I used gas logs in it for years, but when the gas company started gouging us and charging $100/year "tank maintenance" I told them to shove it. You wouldn't believe how easy wood is to get. Our town is cutting down old trees, and they just pile wood on the city lot, first come first serve, all free. plus having three acres of woods makes it easy too.
Last winter we had an ice storm. Power out for three days. Between the generator (for tv and the PC and the fridge and sometimes the microwave) the fireplace (heat and cooking) and candles for light we were set. You do lose heat, I would suggest an insert with a fan. I hung a blanket in the hall to cut down some heat loss, and the den got nice and warm.

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

I have a big kerosun heater and 10 gallons of kerosene on hand all the time in case of a power outage. I also have a gas space heater that I can hook to the gas line in the house and doesn't need power. I always keep the Coleman lantern and stove fueled up and a couple gallons of coleman fuel on hand as well. We also have a couple kerosene lamps and lanterns.

We've had the power go out for a day or two here before. Also had the furnace go out at midnight on the coldest night of the year with a gale blowing, so we were glad we'd stayed prepared.