Fireplaces are inefficient and expensive, poolute a hell of a lot, and a lot of effort. Heatpumps are simple effecient and the cheapest to run and maintain.
post
replies:
When I bought my house, I had the option to add a fireplace. I refused. First, I didn't want to pay for it, second, I didn't want to clean it, so I would have only used it a handful of times a year, mostly around Christmas. The house I grew up in had a brick fireplace in the living room. I only remember it being lit two or three times at the most. Probably for the same reason I didn't get one, my dad didn't want to clean it.
The big, monolithic blocks standing vertically at the side of the house are today, mostly just show--just a framed box for an 8" steel pipe inside. Possibly many houses you see have a chimney, just not the sort you're looking for.
I live in a geodesic dome and I have a free-standing wood-burning stove as a supplemental heat source in my master bedroom which overlooks the living room.
It is capable of heating the entire house by itself, but I only use it like two or three times a year.
That being said, it's often very nice to start a fire on a cold day and have a girl over and have the fire. It's a good excuse to not be wearing any clothes.
Florida here. What's a "chimney"?
replies:
You know I was just wondering if new houses have fireplaces.
replies:
Me in my mid-century ranch style: shim... knee?
I recently saw a return of the "chimney", but now they're large grated cubes with the aircon unit inside. Instead of hanging an ugly box off the side of the wall, they're up on the roof and camouflaged a bit.
replies:
We had a huge ice storm in 2007 across the entire state of Oklahoma. The whole state was without power. I didn't have a chimney, and neither did anyone else I knew. It was easy to freeze to death as every road was ice, or covered with fallen trees. It took a month to get an electrician to fix our rental house, and we stayed with my dad who heated his house with the oven burners that used natural gas. You could die that way, but it was below freezing so we had no choice.
My next house had a chimney, and I got a small generator. I've had to use them both, since.
I will always have a chimney for emergency heat!
replies:
I would rather have like a wood stove than a fireplace. We get cold winters where I live in America and with our infrastructure getting crappier I would find comfort in having that little wood stove in case the power goes out for a long time.
all 57 comments