Fireplace Blower Fans

If you want to get more heat out of your fireplace install fireplace blower fans. Most wood burning fireplaces today are constructed with a heatilator insert that makes up the firebox of the fireplace. The heatilators are made from heavy gage steel and heat very rapidly. Blower fan can be mounted inside the heatilator fire box to increase the air movement through the heatilator.

There is an inlet and outlet on each side of the finished fireplace that allows room air to be aspirated through the bottom vent and out the top vent of the heatilator to heat the room. Fireplace blower fans are usually installed after construction to distribute the air from the fireplace throughout the home. There are over twenty five million homes in the US and thousands of them are built with heatilator inserts, however, many of them do not have blower fans installed to get the heat out of the fireplace.

For wood burning fireplaces the heatilator is installed during the construction of the home to reinforce the fireplace box and to get more heat out of the fireplace by circulating air through it. Heatilators are common in both wood burning and gas burning fireplaces. Fireplaces can be extremely efficient by installing a blower fan. For most gas burning fireplaces a blower fan is an option during purchase that the home owner may not be aware of. However, a blower fan can be installed in a gas burning fireplace at anytime, quite easily.

Fireplace blower fans are available as kits from most fireplace accessory supply stores for both gas and wood burning fireplaces. There are many different types with different fan air volume capacities. The fireplace blower fans distribute the heated air from the fireplace hearth area throughout the complete room which gives the whole room a comfortable warm feeling. Without fireplace blower fans installed the area directly in front of the fireplace will be very warm while the rest of the room is cool.

The blower fans are usually mounted inside each side of the wood burning fireplace heatilator which will allow the cool air to circulate through the heatilator to warm the entire room. In some cases the blower fan is placed in front of the heatilator inlet grill rather than being installed behind the grill. Usually when heatilators are part of a wood burning fireplace the mason installs an electrical wire in the cement that runs into the heatilator so the electrician or the homeowner can install the fans.

The fans are quite small, usually three or four inches in diameter and can be installed very easily by the DIY homeowner. The fans are usually installed just behind the grill at the bottom of gas burning fireplace and circulate the cool air around the firebox and out the top grill.

If you do not have a fireplace blower fan installed in your fireplace you are losing a lot of heat that is radiating up the chimney. I would recommend a blower fan with a variable speed control so you can control the amount of heat in the room simply by adjusting the rheostat.

Gas Fireplaces

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Starting Fireplace Fires

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