When Do you Turn On Your Heat?

[thistlebloom]

We finally turned ours on last night. The smell of the burning dust when the furnace first turns on is very nostalgic....reminds me of standing over the floor furnace when I was 8 years old, with the warm air blowing up my pajama legs. But this morning I remembered why I hate forced air gas heat--woke up all dried out already! It's gonna be a long winter.....whine...whine...whine.
We bought a gas fireplace about 10 years ago. It's one of those no-vent fireplaces. It's beautiful, but we have never been able to utilize it due to the horrible fumes we get. Within a few minutes of burning it, my DH and I both get a headache and heavy feeling in the chest. NOT carbon monoxide; we have a tester. It has been narrowed down to an additive the gas company puts in the natural gas. At least that's what the experts told us. I guess if it was a choice of using the fireplace or freezing to death, we would take the fireplace, but till then, no.

That's interesting So Lucky, I just heard a little about that on the radio today when I drove into town (Gary Sullivans show ). Apparently you have to burn it several times with your windows open to eliminate the initial fumes. It's also dependent on the type of logs, ( foam filled versus ceramic ) and the exact placement of the logs. You probably already knew all that though.

It's a shame you can't use it.

 

[cityfarmer]

Usually when the house is 65 degrees or colder when I get home from work. We spend most of our time in our family room which typically runs. 2 degrees colder than the thermostat.

 

[Nyboy]

So lucky I had the ventless gas put in my fireplace, I do open the flue (sp) when using it. Maybe if you opened a nearby window it would help.Mine throws off so much heat the furnace never comes on when its burning.

 

[nachoqtpie]

We have a beautiful fireplace in our living room... we've never used it in the 3 years that we've lived here because when we had the house inspected they said that it could probably use a cleaning, so hubs just said we weren't going to use it because he wasn't going to pay someone to clean it. I kept telling him we could use some of those chimney sweeping logs or we could get some rope and a burlap bag and put one end down the chimney, tie the bag, and run it up and down the chimney until it was clean.... he doesn't like either idea...

 

[digitS']

Chimneys can be dangerous things. Perhaps more so when folks aren't relying on them regularly and they suddenly have use without any testing. And, what testing are you going to do . . . start a nice fire and see how it goes :/??

The 1st real cold snap must be chaotic for the fire department. It seems like 10% of the houses have fire emergencies in the 1st 48 hours. Okay, that must be a real exaggeration but lack of foresight, preparation and blind trust seem to the methods used with some homeowners. Of course, it extends to the use of portable heaters as people try to find a way to be comfortable.

It is really best to have a chimney professionally cleaned and inspected. The risks are too great to chance a fire in the home.

Steve
who sees the "scrubbing logs" as just planned chimney fire devices

 

[so lucky]

So lucky I had the ventless gas put in my fireplace, I do open the flue (sp) when using it. Maybe if you opened a nearby window it would help.Mine throws off so much heat the furnace never comes on when its burning.

I have tried having a near-by window open; it doesn't help very much. Also, when it was new, I spent several days burning the fireplace full blast with all the windows open, to make sure it wasn't fumes from "newness." To its credit, the fireplace does put out a tremendous amount of heat, and with the automatic fans, I believe it could sucessfully heat the whole house. Maybe it is just the area we live in, and the gas company we use.

qtpie, if you have a source for firewood, I believe I would save up grocery money or something, and hire someone to clean out that chimney, even if hubs doesn't feel too keen on it. Do it while he is out on a hunting trip or something. What's the old saying?--"It's easier to apologize than to get permission"?
Of course, then comes that romantic evening in front of the crackling fire with wine and music. That should do the trick!

 

[897tgigvib]

I hope everyone remembers not to use 2 sources of flame heat in the same building at the same time.

Backdraft kills.

What happens is that one flame source burns more oxygen than the other, and puts more volume of exhaust or smoke out the vent or chimney than the other. The one that is burning more oxygen will suck more air volume, from inside.

Once the pressure gradient is big enough, the smaller flame will begin exhausting backwards, getting its oxygen from outside through its vent or chimney, and releasing its exhaust or smoke into the house. The smaller flame is often the cleaner one, natural gas or propane, and its exhaust filled with carbon monoxide might not be very noticeable, having a tendency to make people and animals sleepy/comfortable.

That's called BACKDRAFT, and entire families still die from it every year.

Solution:
Only burn one flame at a time for heat. Though a gas oven hardly ever burns enough oxygen to backdraft to kill, it can if accidentally left on overnight along with a big fire in a woodstove. I don't know if that's happened, but remembering about backdraft while using a gas oven for say a turkey dinner, means you are probably likely to remember about more dangerous backdraft situations.

I actually have an old piece of duct tape that I use to tape my thermostat in the off position for the warm months, and also for when I have my woodstove going.

Me, I would not use a ventless heater.

 

[Nyboy]

We have a beautiful fireplace in our living room... we've never used it in the 3 years that we've lived here because when we had the house inspected they said that it could probably use a cleaning, so hubs just said we weren't going to use it because he wasn't going to pay someone to clean it. I kept telling him we could use some of those chimney sweeping logs or we could get some rope and a burlap bag and put one end down the chimney, tie the bag, and run it up and down the chimney until it was clean.... he doesn't like either idea...

The last time I had chimmey cleaned it was $75 and thats NY prices.

 

[nachoqtpie]

my husbands cheap... LOL It would probably cost us $50 to have it cleaned. I might just do it one day and deal with him being mad about it later.

 

[Smart Red]

Our wood burning fireplace 'secret' is outside air to the burning chamber. None of the house's heated air goes to the fire. Over the firebox are a couple dozen metal tubes. With the fan running it will carry air from the floor through the heated tubes and into the room through vents in the wall.

Just one benefit of building your own house.

And we have another beautiful fireplace in OUR living room that's never been used in nearly 40 years. I'm not sure why DH wanted one then won't let me use it. . . could be the white in the carpet?

Love, Smart Red