How To Get More Heat From Gas Fireplace

The fireplace is the heart of the house for many people. It brings a room together and makes it feel more like home. Of course, the main purpose of a fireplace is to heat a room, and there’s nothing more annoying than when a fireplace fails to do this correctly. 

For this reason, it’s important to find out ways that you can get more out of your gas fireplace. This will help to ensure that you don’t need to put the heating on during the winter months - you can just use your fireplace. So, how do you get more heat from your gas fireplace? Read on to find out! 

Invest In A Fireplace Blower

You may think that there’s no reason to invest in a fireplace blower for your gas fireplace, but it can make a huge difference. Head down to your local store and grab a fireplace blower, then put it into your fireplace.

Why should you do this? Well, the blower will help to grab the air in the room and will convert it into heat. It will move around the fireplace and this can make the air surrounding it get warmer. 

Basically, your fireplace blower is essential because it will take any cold air from the room and heat it up, then it will be released back into the warm. This will help to turn a cold room into a warm one in no time. As an added bonus, you will also get to enjoy the romantic mood that a fireplace can give a room.

If the fireplace is underneath a mantel and it starts to get hot, then don’t worry. A blower is also useful for helping to cool down the mantel. 

Make Sure That You Are Selecting The Correct Fireplace

There are two main kinds of gas fireplaces on the market - vent free and direct vent.

In terms of efficiency, you are better off choosing a direct vent fireplace. These work the best and they lose the least heat. It’s practical, since it will use the air outside for combustion. It’s ideal during the winter when there is a lot of cold air.

When you choose a direct vent fireplace, you don’t need to worry about losing heat. All of the air in your home will stay warm and you won’t need to worry about putting a coat on while indoors because the air outside is cold. 

Make Sure Your Blower Is In Good Condition

As we’ve already established, a blower can have a huge impact on how heat is distributed throughout the room. It can make the heat distribution much more efficient. With that being said, the blower needs to be properly maintained in order for it to be efficient. It needs to be cleaned, otherwise dust and dirt will start to live in the blower. This can reduce the efficiency.

The consequences of this should be obvious. If your blower is blocked then it will struggle to push the hot air around the room. Your fireplace is essentially useless at this point since the hot air isn’t actually making its way into your home. 

It’s better safe than sorry! The best thing to do is take a look at your blower every six months or so, and make sure that you clean it out. This will make it a lot more efficient. 

Make Sure Your Fireplace Is The Right Size

This may seem a bit random to some. It would make sense that if you got a bigger fireplace, your fireplace will be able to heat your room more easily, right?

Well, this is not the case. You should be making sure that the fireplace accurately matches the size of the home. This will help to evenly distribute the heat throughout the room. If your room measures around 900 to 1200 square feet then you shouldn’t need more than a 20,000 BTU gas fireplace. You will need something larger if the room is larger. 

Likewise, don’t get something too small for the room, as the heat won’t be able to circulate the room as well. 

Replace the Glass on the Front of the Fireplace

A lot of gas fireplaces will have tempered glass on the front. If you want to make it more efficient with heat, it’s worth replacing the tempered glass with ceramic glass. This is because it is significantly stronger and a lot better at distributing the heat throughout the room.

Make Sure Your Fireplace is Well Insulated

Insulation is important when it comes to retaining and distributing heat! You will be able to heat up the room much more easily if the fireplace insert has been insulated correctly. It should be insulated with a drywall and a vapor barrier. 

Close the Damper

If you want the heat to be better, then you should close the damper in your chimney. It’s basically like a little metal plate and it is designed to keep the airflow regulated. 

When the damper is open, the hot air can travel outside through the flue. This also causes another problem, since the outside air can get inside your home too. This not only means that the room is colder, but also that any smells from outside can come in too. You can avoid this whole problem by simply closing the damper.

Conclusion

So, that’s everything that you need to know about how to get more heat from a gas fireplace! These are all simple and cost effective solutions that will help you to keep the heat in your home much more easily. If none of these work, it’s worth performing maintenance on your fireplace to check that everything is working fine.