Not many people have asked why I am getting rid of the fireplaces. Maybe you have secretly wondered. Just in case, I now share with you a photo of the fireplace in the house where I am staying. If that thing had a damper it would help, to be sure, but not enough. Also, the birds out here can be huge. Their nests are huge, too, and they love to nest in chimneys. No California sparrow built a nest like the ones my guys hauled out of the one unscreened chimney. I should have taken a photo of that.
So we will position skylights to allow views of the chimneys. The ashes, soot, drafts, the bird debris and merciless space – hogging, we’ll leave that to your imagination.
I was wondering about the fireplaces, but I understand I think
They are drafty, messy and most of the heat from your hard-earned logs goes straight up the chimney .
We will have no open fires at our place, the remains of the very, very old one will become wine storage.
We have very economical and highly efficient “clean burning” & minimal ash scattering wood burning stove ready to be stove-piped out thru roof into little capped chimney thing. Any birds daft enough to get in there will be (a) very small and (b) very hot once they have slalomed down the nice shiny inside of the stove-pipe.
Yeah, the wood pellets are a good option. If I had not been able to do the aquathermal thing, I’d have chosen that.