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Today, a fireplace is more than just a heating source. With so many decorative choices available, your fireplace will heat your home and accent your decorating style, while providing ample warmth on cold winter days. Compared to a site-built masonry fireplace, factory-built systems are surprisingly inexpensive and easy to purchase and install. They use a safe, lightweight chimney (or no chimney at all for some gas fireplaces) and thus do not need the additional structural support required for a masonry chimney. They can be easily and safely installed in almost any room.
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| Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Jotul, Napoleon, Quadra Fire |
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These fireplaces are available in a wide variety of sizes and appearances. The traditional woodburning masonry fireplace is notoriously inefficient for home heating; huge amounts of heated air are usually exhausted up the chimney and out of the house. Wood burning factory-built fireplaces are now available with the same high-tech, EPA certified technology required by the federal government in woodburning stoves for clean burning and efficiency. A few fireplaces are available with efficiencies of 70+% and can be connected into a ductwork system to use as a central heating appliance, or supplement an existing system. |
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| Harman, Quadra Fire |
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Several wood pellet appliances are now available that can be installed as a factory-built fireplace, providing the traditional appearance of a woodburning fireplace with the advantages of a modern, efficiency wood pellet burning unit. |
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| Harman, Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Jotul, Napoleon, Quadra Fire |
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Modern gas fireplaces provide all the romance and aesthetics of a wood burning fireplace with a high heating efficiency and the ultimate in cleanliness, ease of operation and comfort; they combine the appearance of a wood burning fireplace with the heating of an automatic gas furnace. They can usually be installed without a chimney, either venting through a side wall or, occasionally, with no vent at all. |
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| Electraflame (Dimplex), Heat & Glo, Heatilator |
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Not only do electric fireplaces simulate the appearance of a wood fire, they can be economically operated all year long to provide the appearance of a wood fire without the heat. Yet they can also supply some auxiliary or back up heat if needed. They require no venting and can be installed almost anywhere that an outlet is available. |
| Harman, Heat & Glo, Jotul, Napoleon, Quadra Fire |
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Whether they burn wood, wood pellets, corn, other biomass or coal, fireplace inserts are essentially modern versions of stoves which are designed to fit into an existing masonry or factory-built wood burning fireplace and improve its performance and appearance. A multitude of appearance options are available. |
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