Direct vent gas fire place insert/ anyone use one?
 

Hello. Me and the wife are looking into one of these and I was wondering if anyone had any expierence with one of these units. From what we're told they do a pretty good job heating the house as well and will do so on any floor that the chimney is attached to. Any input would be appreciated.


Thanks,

Chris

My in-laws have a direct-vent wood fireplace. The heat it puts out is absolutely incredible. Vastly superior to a conventional fireplace. Theirs is in a two story great room, it will easily heat their main floor and upstairs (approx 4000 sq ft) when it's really going. The kids upstairs sometimes have to open their bedroom windows because it's so damn hot.

Fireplace is to look pretty, these things actually will heat your home.

We have a direct vent Natural gas fire place. It is not an insert. I do not recall the size but it is one of the small size fire places from one of the big box hardware stores. It was about $400.00 and includes a circulator fan. We bought it to take the chill out of our ground floor which includes the family room 1 bath, guest bedroom and laundry room. All are on a concrete slab. Our home is 2-1/2 stories and an open floor plan from family room to the up to the cathedral ceiling, which is roughly 25' to the peak. The lower level was basically unusable in the winter months it was always cold and damp as the heat would go straight up to the top of the house. The heater works well enough to heat the lower level but also the living room, kitchen and dining room areas.

I think this is what my in-laws have, or very similar: 7100FP - Wood Model from Quadra-Fire

It was very much NOT $400. I honesty don't know, but I'd guess at least $2000.

The unit your in-laws have is real nice. I just checked the HD site and it looks like we may have the Ember-glow 26" 26,000 BTU and it is a vent free unit not a direct vent. Price states $698.00 but I know it wasn't that much. Since you are looking for a direct vent my info may not be relevant.

The place I'm living in has two - one in the main living space that vents to a chimney (shared with a wood-burning stove in the basement, different flue obviously) and the second in one of the bedrooms (goes straight through the exterior wall to a discharge). Both are okay at adding some heat, but honestly I'm a little bit underwhelmed with the amount of heat they produce. Possible they're not sized properly, so I can't entirely blame the technology overall - I'd have to research it more. Both of these use propane from a common tank, which I'm similarly underwhelmed with the performance of. It strikes me as an expensive fuel (well over $3 a gallon) and it just doesn't seem to make much heat. Down the road I'll probably rip the whole mess out and go with a forced-air system of some sort or another; I think one of the big problems with these stove things is lack of heat circulation - I use a fan to blow the heated air around but it's still pretty wimpy at heating the overall volume of this house when it gets cold outside. You need to supplement it by stoking up the wood stove in the basement and/or running the electric baseboard units (which I hate - they cost a fortune to run).

Jeff, IMHO and based on some northern winter experience forced hot air isn't all that comfortable in a NH winter. You really want a hot body in the room, stove, radiator, flame something.

We used one in a house in NY. They put out lots of heat and also add humidity to the air, making the house more comfortable. Downside, the products of combustion seem to be H2O and soot. The soot collects on the ceilings so after a few years it is really noticeable.

The biggest problem I had living in Western Massachusetts was no Natural Gas in the entire town. A new gas line was announced, which would run through the town. Everyone rejoiced with the news, until they found out is was simply a "through" line and no one would be getting gas.

My house was converted to baseboard forced hot water, 10 years before I bought it. It is less expensive to run the copper pipes around the house than to try to run ducts in a house not built for them.

The nice thing about the oil furnace was that it doubled as a hot water heater. If I had to do it again, I would also have an electric hot water heater. The furnace system would be a pre-heater, to reduce hot water costs.

I have one sitting in my basement. Hopefully this will be the year that it gets installed.
They are great for taking the chill off certain areas of the house. Typically direct vents have combustion gasses in the centre of the vent and combustion (fresh) air in the outer section. Think tube in a tube. Since it is sealed combustion, it doesn't burn warm room air and the products of combustion is removed to the outdoors. There are different types and limitations as to how far you can run the vent piping.
One of the most important features to consider is a gas valve that will allow you to "turn down" the amount of heat that the unit produces. It kind of customizes it for the space.
For a basement family room I would suggest a capacity of around 20,000 BTU.

Down here, we call direct vent, B-vent. It is sealed combustion, so the house is not affected by combustion gases or moisture.

I would never install a regular vent-free, or vented insert/fireplace in any house I own. They are worthless except for aesthetics.

The direct vent, on the other hand, is a great appliance. It combines beauty with function.

Porsche-O-Phile, If I recall when buying a barbeque the sales person explained propane doesn't burn as hot as Natural Gas and the better units are Natural gas as the heat is more controllable and get hotter. If that is true that could be part of the problem with your propane heaters.

When I first opened my office I heated the entire building with vent free Natural Gas heaters. The original radiator heat had all the radiators removed at some point. The vent frees were the quickest and most cost effective fix at the time. We used a single fireplace style on the first floor and smaller vent free heaters in each of the 4 offices on the second floor and an electric oil radiator in the bathroom. More then adequate heat for all but the coldest days. The building now has central forced hot air heat and AC but all the heaters are still operable and used on occasion. .

I'd disagree. My 4 story walkup (2 apartments and 1 owners unit) in NY only had electric heat. I installed ventless gas heaters in the apartments and my unit to "supplement" the electric heat. The only place you ever needed to turn on the electric, was in the bathroom.

These were natural gas, Blue Flame units, and has integral Oxygen depletion sensors. I also installed CO sensors in the units, just in case.

These units worked great. The only thing I had to do was put a fan on my lower level, to keep the warm air circulating.

That is crazy. In fact, propane has more energy per pound than natual gas. Natural gas is a less expensive fuel.

P-O-P, as much as I hate buying home heating fuel, it sounds like it would be cheaper than the propane you're buying.

I have one in my living room. Used a piece of equipment i have for my job to measure heat output. It blows out 165F air. Only problem is the thermostat is in the living room. So when I'm ready to hit the sack the back of the house is cold. No problem really, just put lots of covers on!