the “warm” fireplace

0
1415

The Dept. of Energy said recently that fireplaces “should not be considered heating devices.” I thought that was interesting. An article on green.msn.com said that they’re only about 10% efficient, and that they let all kinds of warm air escape your home.

My parents installed a wood burning stove last year and they say it saves them loads on their heating. I guess their situation isn’t what the article described. They have their stove in the basement, and because it’s not a traditional fireplace, it has a glass door you can close. It’s new, so it even has a fan in the bottom that blows the hot air through the house, and the hot air that rises goes to the main floor.

Even if their stove is saving them money, we need to consider the trees that fuel their fire. My dad’s pretty savvy and gets trees that are fallen down. So that helps, however, even the fallen trees have value as they will soon be nutrients for future trees. I wonder if I could get a tree expert to evaluate the situation…

Previous articleA rebuilt world?
Next articleCreative Housing
My name is Kelvin Findlay. I fell in love with architecture as I worked in construction several years ago. The power of making something so meaningful to the future residents was humbling and exciting. I now am a student of Design, Sales, and Marketing trying to bring Sustainable and Regenerative Design to the whole world. I work at www.theplancollection.com where I blog about green design whenever I can (though most of my writings are website specific like plan descriptions and the like).