Andy Loughney

Thanks for the responses.

The Rumford fireplace is too intensive of a project for me right now. I'm looking more for plug and play with either a wood stove or an insert. The chimney has been inspected and the liner is in good shape, so no worries there.

I guess what I'm really getting at is: is one of these installations "better" than the other, in whatever terms you choose: efficiency, aesthetics, even heat, etc.... A couple of the insert models that I looked at do have blowers, and I'm more interested in the resilience of something that requires no power to run. We moved from an off-grid situation and were really in control of all of our systems and are trying to get back to a similar state in our new grid-tied place. So, electric blankets are really not what we're looking for Angelika.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

Recently moved into an old farmhouse with this beautiful and horribly inefficient open fireplace (see attached pic, I hope). I'm looking for options to turn it into a viable heat source for this upcoming winter.

I've been reading through the wood stove threads and have gotten some good leads on brands and the catalytic v. non-cat discussion. What I'm looking for now is the conversation comparing a stand alone wood stove that simply utilizes the existing chimney vs. a fireplace insert meant to sit flush with the stone facade. There is some great thermal mass with all the stones and I certainly want to take advantage of that and really warm those up.

Any ideas or leads out there? Thanks!

Andy