Is a Fireplace Insert Worth the Investment?
E nvironmental awareness and reducing one’s carbon footprint has become an urgent concern over the last few years, thanks to the rise in climate change, which has made itself evident with numerous catastrophes. From wildfires to melting glaciers to rising sea levels, which has threatened to drown some islands and coastal cities, people now witness the devastating effects of too many carbon emissions.
Homeowners across Canada are now taking steps to reduce their contribution to greenhouse gases by opting for fireplace inserts instead of using traditional open fireplaces. These inserts are energy-saving appliances that offer many benefits. Here’s what you need to know about fireplace inserts:
Do Fireplace Inserts Work Like Traditional Ones?
Canada is notorious for its frigid temperatures, which makes fireplaces a necessity to stay warm during winters. However, given its fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, they aren’t the most environmentally-friendly option. Still, heating in Toronto, ON, is necessary to survive such harsh weather conditions.
Fortunately, fireplace inserts are a much more fuel-efficient option while keeping the charm and allure of a traditional fireplace. An insert is a fireproof box bound in steel or cast iron, fronted by a self-cleaning insulated glass. You put this insert into an existing fireplace or a newly constructed fireplace structure. Although it cannot replicate the crackle and pop of a traditional fireplace, it retains more heat.
Fireplace inserts provide more reliable heat than traditional fireplaces, thanks to the sophistication of its new design, which involves a closed combustion system. The device sucks the air needed for combustion using an outside source, then recirculates the hot air, allowing it to flow through a duct or a flue. Your chosen fuel source will burn heat through this system without producing harmful gases while providing you with consistent warmth.
Newer, conventional fireplaces convert around only 20 percent of their fuel into functioning heat, while older fireplaces convert a measly 5 to 10 percent. However, a fireplace insert can convert 60 to 80 percent into usable heat, thanks to its closed combustion system. It can also use many types of fuels, like natural gas, electricity, coal, pellets, wood, and propane.
Are Fireplace Inserts Safe to Use?
Fireplace inserts are safe devices to install in your home as long as you hire a professional to do it. Since they have the tools and knowledge to install it properly, they’ll ensure that the fireplace insert supplies you with the required heat efficiency while operating safely.
Since the fireplace insert is covered in glass, it helps radiate heat into the room. As such, these surfaces will be too hot to touch, so it’s important to avoid handling them with your bare hands. Luckily, many fireplace inserts now feature Safe Touch technologies that cool the glass surfaces, keeping them at incredibly low temperatures.
Another quality that makes fireplace inserts safe to use is that they produce a cleaner burn and less smoke, which does not negatively affect your eyes and a respiratory system like traditional fireplaces do. You’ll be staying warm without harming the environment through these new technologies.
What are the Benefits of Fireplace Inserts?
Fireplace inserts have a world of benefits. For starters, they operate more efficiently than open fireplaces, which have remarkably low-efficiency ratings. Open hearths pull a lot of heated room air back into the fire, waste energy, and produce a fire that quickly burns. However, fireplace inserts are sealed, closed systems that burn fire much slower and reduces heat waste. As a result, it generates more heat, keeping you warm for longer.
Another benefit of fireplace inserts is that using them can diminish wood-burning emissions to almost zero. You can freely use your fireplace insert without worrying about your carbon footprint, which is much more significant with an open-hearth fireplace.
Using fireplace inserts also allows you to save more money on your energy bills since they work more efficiently. They also use less gas, electricity, or other energy sources to heat your home. Even when you aren’t using the fireplace insert, its air-tight glass doors will keep the heated inside air in your house, preventing it from escaping through your chimney and allowing cold outdoor air to seep through your home.
A bonus of having fireplace inserts instead of traditional ones is that they are available in numerous stylish and gorgeous designs, allowing you to find the perfect one that matches your home’s interior. They can fit flush with your fireplace’s face, entirely inside your existing firebox, or protrude out of it by a few inches, with each of these facets adding more appeal to your home.
Are Fireplace Inserts Worth the Investment?
By themselves, traditional fireplaces are often regarded as a staple in every Canadian home to keep warm and cozy during unforgiving winters. Fireplace inserts take all the benefits of their conventional counterparts and minimize the disadvantages, offering a fuel-efficient and environmentally-safe way to generate heat and keep it circulating within your home. They also require much less maintenance since you won’t have to clean it, remove ash, or throw in more wood to kindle the fire. That also means you’ll save on having to hire a furnace repair service in Toronto all the time to fix up your fireplace.
You can also retain the charm of a traditional fireplace, with its bright glow and soft crackle, with a fireplace insert. You also have the option of decorating it with even more materials, like setting it up with bronze doors, putting glass rocks, and even log sets.
Conclusion
When used with your heating, fireplace inserts can do wonders for cutting down on your heating bill. Such costs tend to spike during extreme weather conditions in the bid to stay comfortable and warm. With all its energy-saving features and sophisticated design, you can retain all the rustic appeal of a traditional fireplace while enjoying more heat and efficiency. When you consider its many aspects, fireplace inserts are undoubtedly worth the investment.
Temp-A-Sure is one of the leading heating and air conditioning companies in Toronto , bringing you the most reliable HVAC services around. We offer furnace repair, hot water tank repair and installation, AC maintenance, and many more. Contact us today to find out how we can improve your home’s comfort and efficiency!
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