High Efficiency Fireplace Insert

Our house came with a built-in wood burning fireplace. It was nice on occasion, but wasn't particulary warm or easy to use. 

After the power-outage in Texas last year, we've been feeling mildly anxious about heating our (almost) all-electric house during a power outage. Then Brianna noticed that there is a tax credit for high-efficiecy wood fireplaces and inserts.

Sooo, we're getting a high-efficiency wood burning insert. Specifically a Regency Cascade I1500. It's just about the only model that will fit in our space and still qualify for the tax credit.

It will slide right into the cavity of our existing fireplace, and have a new stainless steel liner running up the chimney.

And here's the final product:

It has a catalyst to help the particulates in the smoke burn before entering the chimney. This thing is actually qualified to burn even on no-burn days here in Colorado. The little box in the top left is a thermometer, to help manage when to use the catalyst.

This thing actually does put out quite a bit of heat, but maybe not as much as the sales guy said it would. It's still quite an upgrade over the old fireplace. Only downside is the small size - we actually bought a small, battery-powered chainsaw to cut our firewood short enough to fit.

So far we've only burned wood that was deadfall, mostly from our yard or neighborhood, which should be carbon-neutral? Maybe? I guess I'd rather have the security to keep my house and family warm than be a 100% ideological about not having any carbon emissions.