by Howard Delaney
Wood burning fireplace inserts are becoming very popular these days for one simple reason: it takes lot of energy to run an actual fireplace, so why not have it look like you're running your fireplace but save energy at the same time. Aesthetics are everything with a good fireplace and you won't sacrifice in that area with wood burning fireplace inserts, that much is certain.
Essentially wood burning fireplace inserts are literally wood burning stoves that slide right into your fireplace, and burn wood in your chimney without the massive energy costs of using the actual fireplace.
Any one who knows what the worth of family affection is among the lower classes, and who has seen the array of little portraits stuck over a labourer’s fireplace ... will perhaps feel with me that in counteracting the tendencies, social and industrial, which every day are sapping the healthier family affections, the sixpenny photograph is doing more for the poor than all the philanthropists in the world.
—Macmillan’s Magazine (London, September 1871)
As cool as they are though, they are not cheap at all. Some of them can range from several hundred, to several thousand dollars. This is almost prohibitively expensive for some people, but if you can save back the extra cash wood burning fireplace inserts will be a great alternative to actually using the fireplace.
The first one we are going to look at is the Flame XTD 1.5-1 EPA Wood burning fireplace insert. This is a great addition to any home, and it burns very efficiently, not to mention safely. It can hold a lot of wood in the 1.8 cubic feet within, and it has a maximum output of 60,000 BTU. There's even an internal air wash device which will keep the glass cleaned for you.
Next up is the Montpelier Non-Catalytic Medium Wood Insert, which can burn for up to ten hours and an interior of 286 square inches, which is a lot larger than most models. This model is inset into the fireplace and will not stick out as if it were a bay window. If you have limited room in your living room then this will be an excellent choice for you. As always, it is a vented gas fireplace so you won't have to worry about any sort of gas buildup inside the actual unit.
At length, by mid-afternoon, after we had had two or three rainbows over the sea, the showers ceased, and the heavens gradually cleared up, though the wind still blowed as hard and the breakers ran as high as before. Keeping on, we soon after came to a charity-house, which we looked into to see how the shipwrecked mariners might fare. Far away in some desolate hollow by the seaside, just within the bank, stands a lonely building on piles driven into the sand, with a slight nail put through the staple, which a freezing man can bend, with some straw, perchance, on the floor on which he may lie, or which he may burn in the fireplace to keep him alive. Perhaps this hut has never been required to shelter a shipwrecked man, and the benevolent person who promised to inspect it annually, to see that the straw and matches are here, and that the boards will keep off the wind, has grown remiss and thinks that storms and shipwrecks are over; and this very night a perishing crew may pry open its door with their numbed fingers and leave half their number dead here by morning. When I thought what must be the condition of the families which alone would ever occupy or had occupied them, what must have been the tragedy of the winter evenings spent by human beings around their hearths, these houses, though they were meant for human dwellings, did not look cheerful to me. They appeared but a stage to the grave. The gulls flew around and screamed over them; the roar of the ocean in storms, and the lapse of its waves in calms, alone resounds through them, all dark and empty within, year in, year out, except, perchance, on one memorable night. Houses of entertainment for shipwrecked men! What kind of sailor’s homes were they?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
The Osburn 1800 High Efficiency Bay Window Wood Insert is an excellent choice, it does have a bay window style for those who have more room in their family or living room. With 72% efficiency and a top blowing vent, you really cannot go wrong with this model.
Remember that installing wood burning fireplace inserts is a very complicated and precise process, so unless you have the knowledge it would be best to have a professional do it, whether it is gas or electric, not only so that you don't end up breaking it, but so you will be able to enjoy the new device to it's full potential.
Conserving energy is very important these days, and using wood burning fireplace inserts is a great way to ensure that you do your part for the environment. Buy yourself one of these devices today so you'll not only help the environment, you'll also have a much prettier view to enjoy within your home fireplace!