do fireplaces suck the heat out of the rest of the house?

Answer 1

Not if you close the flue.

Close your fireplace flue when you are not using the fireplace. Your fireplace is a big hole that runs up your chimney to the outside. It is designed for upward flow, and that is what it does even when there is no fire burning.

Answer 2

The short answer is YES!

An open fireplace is only 5% efficient at generating heat. Furthermore, the US Department of Energy has found that a person using an open fireplace during cold weather will use 10% more fuel to heat their home. So it is certainly a loosing proposition to generate heat with an open fireplace.

Some people have mentioned closing the damper when the fireplace is not in use. That is certainly a good idea but dampers are notoriously leaky and crusty due to cresote and constant heating and cooling warp and metal fatigue.

As far as opening a window while you are buring in a fireplace...who wants to do that in cold weather? It certainly increases the draw for your chimney, but it obviously lets in a significant amount of cold air. I live up north so i'm not into doing that in the winter!

Answer 3

belle,

PLEASE stop using your fireplace. You are going to die from CO poisoning! Get the flue fixed!

As to the question, a fireplace needs some makeup air to support combustion. The hot gases travel up the flue to the chimney and out. That volume of gas needs to be replaced by a like volume of fresh air from inside the house.

Wood burning fireplaces are notoriously inefficient. If you can afford the wood, it's best to start a fire and keep it going until all of the brickwork is warm. That's when you get the most heat benefit. Once the hearth/brickwork is thoroughly heated, efficiency increase.

The heat from the rest of your house won't be "sucked ot". In most homes, there is enough air leakage that no problems arise, but if your house is really airtight, you may need to crack a window to get good air flow.

Answer 4

Zocco is right Belle! Better get yourself a Carbon monoxide tester in a hurry! Or don't use the fireplace with all of the windows closed. If you can, pull the top half of a window down about 2", close to the fireplace. If you open a window too far away, the room that it is in will get cold.

The reason I am going thru such lengths to tell you this is that the fire needs oxygen to burn and if there is no way for it to replace the burned oxygen, the house fills with deadly Carbon monoxide.

Answer 5

Heating your home with a fireplace is not as efficient as a furnace. Lots of heat is lost straight up the chimney. One way to stop excess heat loss is to install a fireplace insert, which will put more heat into the home and less up the chimney. Jotul stoves are great, and will help make your fireplace much, much more efficient. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

They don't suck heat out of a home, but heat can escape through a fireplace.

Answer 7

No they don't suck the heat out of the house, but they do take the moisture out of the house. I have a gas fireplace and I get a headache and get sick every time I run it for a long period of time. I started running vaporizers or humidifiers when I run the fireplace and now I'm not getting headaches or sick. I hope this answers your question.

Answer 8

yes fireplaces suck the heat out houses that's why they were the only way people heated there dwellings for hundreds of years.

Answer 9

they pull air which pulls it from the other rooms. If you have a window open in another room that room will be colder. It will either find a source of air or go out, The answer is YES.

It's best to open a window.

Belle is poisioning herself with signs of carbon monoxide.

Answer 10

I don't think Belle gets it -- she's poisoning herself.