Fireplaces: source of heat or heatloss?

nick_7

I am an HO who now has a very old, drafty, antique house with lots of fireplaces. My wife loves having roaring fires and so do I. However, I say they result in heat pouring out the chimney and higher fuel bills. She says, nonsense, they use to heat the whole house with fireplaces alone, so they must be adding heat. Who's right?

pitman9

You're both wrong!!

Your wife's wrong about a FP adding heat to the home. FPs are a HUGE energy waster, particularly the old ones.

And you sir, are wrong to argue with your wife. You obviously have not been married long enough.

John@Reliable_10

Listen to pitman (hehehe)

Dick Charland

True and false

When they were the only way to heat they were an great, and then came the Franklin stove etc, etc, etc.
Their primary source of heat is radiant, but to get that, you are losing/using tremendous amounts of heated air in the combustion process. A good roaring fire is literally sucking the heat out of the house. Add a set of doors to cut down on heat loss and still keep the ambience so to speak.

Unknown

You have two cases: fire running, fire not running.

Fire not running, well, all you have is a draft. big ones.

Fire running, you're adding some heat (radiating from the fire) but losing heat (sucking in cold air from the outside and shoving it up the chimney). So the room the fireplace is in gets heat, but anywhere that the cold air is being pulled into (say, that nearby back bedroom?) is losing heat.

It's not quite that simple, but suffice to say, fireplace heating is not economical and that's why we don't do it anymore.