4 Ways to Increase Home Energy Efficiency with Your Fireplace

Making sure your chimney is in good working order, and using the right fuel for your fire plays a key role in increasing home energy efficiency by reducing your dependence on your furnace during cold winter months.

A thorough chimney cleaning and inspection also helps, making sure your chimney is sound and efficient. But there are several other key tasks to making sure you’re getting the most of your chimney and increasing home energy efficiency. So how can you make your home more energy efficient with your fireplace? Do the following and you’ll be sure to rely less on your furnace to heat your home:

• Install a chimney cap at the top of your chimney, if you haven’t already. Chimney caps will keep out of your chimney debris that could restrict airflow to your chimney, creating inefficiencies.
• Make sure to seal your fireplace with fire resistant materials to keep cold air from entering your living space when you’re not burning a fire.
• Only use firewood that’s been dried for approximately 6 months. Wet or damp firewood burns less efficiently that thoroughly dried wood, which also prevents the build-up of creosote, a dangerous by-product of burning that adheres to the interior of the chimney and can catch on fire in intense heat.
• Make sure your flue damped is working as it should before lighting a fire. It should open and close with ease. It should be opened just before lighting a fire, and closed when your fireplace is not in use. Keeping it open when not using your fireplace allows cold air into the living space, making your furnace work harder to offset the cold air.

Following the above advice, and getting your chimney cleaned and inspected annually, will help increase home energy efficiency. At Chimney Heroes, we can help with the above recommendations by installing a chimney cap, or making sure your flue dampers work properly. And we cover a wide area, including Albany, Corinth, Malta, Clifton Spa, Saratoga Springs and more.

For more information or to learn how you can use your fireplace to increase home energy efficiency, contact us today.