Wood Burning Insert

Installing a modern wood burning insert into an existing fireplace is becoming a popular choice in home improvement projects with the increases in heating costs.  Wood burning inserts using new advanced combustion technology have many new features that increase their efficiency.  Airtight, gasketed doors, a special ceramic glass window that allows much of the infrared heat to be transmitted to the room, and a hot air blower “sweeping” the window to allow easy viewing of the fire a just the beginning.

The use of two separate combustion zones reduces emissions by ten fold compared to a conventional fireplace. This enables the environmentally friendly use of wood, a renewable energy source. Low levels of creosote and incomplete combustion products virtually eliminate the potential for chimney fires as an added benefit.

These advanced combustion inserts have better heat exchange properties than conventional fireplaces because room air is drawn in through a grill under the firebox and a fan sends it through a heat exchanger and back into the room through grills at the top.  Some units make it possible for the heat to be ducted to adjacent rooms where an auxiliary fan can send it through the existing ducts to the rest of the house.

The air requirements for these new inserts require as little as one tenth of the ventilation of a typical house. It is, however, still a good idea to supply the fireplace with direct outside air for combustion (this is mandatory in some areas).

New inserts also have little or no interaction with the house air, so the chances of combustion products leaking into the home are minimal.  The maze that is used for preheating the air before it goes into the firebox is designed to keep the combustion gases from escaping.

Advanced combustion wood burning inserts offer levels of energy efficiency as high as 50 to 70% (even higher when installed in an area with an open view to other parts of the house).  This can reduce overall energy demand and dramatically lower heating bills.