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Old 11-01-14, 04:25 PM   #1
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Default Improvement from blower on gas fireplace

Last summer we moved to a new apartment. One of the down sides was that the furnace is electric. Which seems ridiculous to me because it has a gas fireplace, also surprising, no gas meter. I guess it's meant to be a perk of a fairly upscale apartment for the town, either way the gas is free / costs already part of the rent.

So I'm hoping to primarily use the fireplace for heat, and supplement with the actual furnace. So to the question...

How fast could adding a blower to the fireplace pay for itself? How likely could it in a single winter? Maybe a better question would be, how much does a blower increase the efficiency of a gas fireplace? I'm thinking the rate it consumes fuel is about constant, so how much can a blower increase the total output?

Also i figure a blower would lower the temperature on the wood mantle above, which I think is built to code, but if I'm running the fireplace 24/7 for a couple months, how hot is safe with constant exposure?

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Old 11-01-14, 07:20 PM   #2
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Put some copper tubing in the fireplace and pump water through it to make a boiler. Then route the hot water through a cheap car radiator.
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Old 11-01-14, 07:43 PM   #3
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I have Gas fireplace installation manuals where they claimed no efficiency was gained threw the use of in unit blowers.

Which sounds counter intuitive but a loose fact because of the radiant heat.

A fan directed at the glass could / might recover heat that may otherwise end up the chimney.
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Old 11-01-14, 08:35 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ecomodded View Post
A fan directed at the glass could / might recover heat that may otherwise end up the chimney.
Does the glass conduct heat a lot better than the back and sides do?
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Old 11-01-14, 10:06 PM   #5
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There should be no risk to your wood mantle, assuming it was installed per instructions, usually 1" clearance from flue and firebox. The fireplace box is usually well insulated, so the glass might be warmer, I'd check with a infrared thermometer. The blower might not make the fireplace "more efficient" but it will circulate that heat further from the fireplace. It will also help average the temperature so its not crazy hot by the fireplace and cold further away. You might consider a couple of computer fans near the sides, even running the ceiling fan backwards if you have one might be just as effective.
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Old 11-01-14, 11:36 PM   #6
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The heat around the sides and back will not go up the chimney , its already yours so to speak.

Last edited by ecomodded; 11-02-14 at 12:02 AM..
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Old 11-01-14, 11:50 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2000mc View Post
Does the glass conduct heat a lot better than the back and sides do?


The front gets much more heat directed at it, from the flames and fire bricks making it the "sweet spot" or hot spot to draw hot air from.

and a spot with the most heat loss up the chimney due to its high heat placement.
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Old 11-02-14, 06:06 AM   #8
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The only real way to make it more efficient is to reroute the flue through a secondary HX. Is it is natural draft fireplace? If so, the flue is about as hot as it can get and the beast is probably only 60% efficient so any heat you can take from the flue will drop its temp. You then have to make sure the venting doesn't condense too much.
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Old 11-02-14, 02:48 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikesolar View Post
The only real way to make it more efficient is to reroute the flue through a secondary HX. Is it is natural draft fireplace? If so, the flue is about as hot as it can get and the beast is probably only 60% efficient so any heat you can take from the flue will drop its temp. You then have to make sure the venting doesn't condense too much.
I don't think this is a natural draft, I can see the flue where it leaves the top of the fireplace, but I'm not sure where it draws air in. It's a monessen bdv400nv if that's helpful. The identification tag under the fireplace says "blot fan or blower may be used" so I didn't think there would be an issue of cooling too much if using an appropriate blower

Its sounding like adding a blower doesn't really help get more total heat into the house, or if it does the difference would be very small
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Old 11-16-14, 10:58 PM   #10
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Figured I should tie up this loose end of a thread. Eventually found that the unit claims 80% effiecentcy, so I wasn't thinking a fan could make a very significant difference. With the recent cold I found out that it could keep up down to about 10F, which would be below the avg low in January here. So I switched to just maximizing useage, and replace the switch for the unit with a thermostat

10f was optimistic, maybe down to a windchill of 10f


Last edited by 2000mc; 11-17-14 at 11:24 AM..
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