Comments on: What’s greener … centralling heating the whole house or warming one room with a fire?

By: Christos from Greece

Christos from Greece — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:11:03 +0000

I have a friend that has a fireplace (wood) which is built in solid iron of some sort, this one is special though, it has water pipelines running on the top of it, so he has it connected to the radiators at his house. In this way by circulating warmed up water at about 70000-85000 btu through the radiators, his house is much warmer that otherwise.
Also modern fireplaces take air from the chimney so you do not experience the air in the room not being enough.

By: Alice

Alice — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:09:25 +0000

Hopefully you should have thermostatic controls on all your radiators, meaning you can turn off all the other radiators in your house, turn up the one in the room you’re using, and use your central heating to heat only the parts of the house you’re in.

If you don’t have controls on all your radiators then consider getting some fitted – sounds as though it could save you some money in fuel bills!

By: Amanda Kerik

Amanda Kerik — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 22:49:46 +0000

Option C.
Use an electric space heater.

This can be a lot cheaper than natural gas depending on your power costs.

By: Emanla Eraton

Emanla Eraton — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:58:23 +0000

If it’s snowing outside, go and shovel your driveway (with a shovel, no snowblowers). You have to wear thick layers. Within no time, you will feel quite hot, and will not want the indoor heating when you enter your house. Plus, your driveway will be snow free now.

By: Brian Knightly

Brian Knightly — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:42:37 +0000

Because they suck up so much room air, typical open fireplaces deliver between zero and 20 per cent net efficiency.

A fireplace that uses current technology, one that is EPA certified for low emissions, for example, will deliver between 60 and 70 per cent efficiency.

This means a modern woodburning fireplace is competitive with any other form of home heating in terms of energy efficiency.

http://www.woodheat.org/technology/openfire.htm

By: Brian Knightly

Brian Knightly — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:37:40 +0000

whatever type of open fire, it requires air flow. the bigger the fire, the more air it needs.

most modern houses are tightly built and can’t sustain enough air for a big open log fire and results in depressurisation.

the air that is pulled in from outside is obviously as cold as it is outside. so the colder the weather, the less efficient an open fire can be!

By: sarar

sarar — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 18:01:40 +0000

It’s been lovely and sunny this afternoon! So hope you don’t need either this evening!

-SaraR

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 15:59:48 +0000

I’m not sure about gas but open fire can actually make the room feel colder if you’re not right next to the flames: they make it drafty and you loose most of the heat straight up the chimney. Plus you can’t control exactly how long they’re on for so I’d say a short burst of central heating was much than that. Paul.