Get your wood-burning fireplace in tiptop shape for the winter

May 19, 2012 | Installing a new fireplace insert with glass doors and a heat exchanger will be huge steps toward adding efficiency to your fireplace. This allows the heated air from your home to stay in your home, and the air that the fire needs for combustion comes from the great outdoors. Special reflective panels, or firebacks, can be installed at the back and along the sides of your fireplace to reflect the heat back out into the room. You can close them at the end of the evening without closing the damper so that the burning embers can still burn down after you go to bed. Another way to increase efficiency is to add an outdoor air supply to the fireplace. Glass doors are a good thing to add to your fireplace for a couple of reasons. They also protect the brick mortar from deteriorating from the excessive heat produced by your fireplace. Never burn chemically treated wood. Burn only seasoned wood. It lights easier and burns longer than fresher wood. They also prevent a lot of your household air from going up and out the chimney. Read more »

Wall Mounted Electric Fireplaces Enter the Fray with Unrivalled Quality and ...

May 19, 2012 | Wall Mounted Electric Fires has burst in to the fireplace market, offering cutting edge wall mounted electric fires at discounted prices. With Christmas just around the corner, retailers are urging customers to get their orders in to ensure a cost

An Energy Star to call home

May 19, 2012 | In the fireplace, she also used direct ventilation, which has the exhaust vent going through the wall rather than the ceiling. “We're trying to avoid openings in the roof so we don't have infiltration,” she said. “The less infiltration in the home,

What You Get for ... $375000

May 19, 2012 | The living room has built-in bookshelves and cabinets, and a working fireplace with a surround restored by a local craftsman. The family room has a cathedral ceiling and a wood stove, with a chimney rebuilt within the past 10 years.