Expert: James Ball - 12/22/2008

Question
Hello...my wife and I recently bought a house that has a regular fireplace/chimney with gas logs and not being that familiar with them, I have a few questions.  The gas logs are fed by a propane tank behind the house and are considered 'vented'.  The fireplace mantle has two vents on each side of the fireplace opening.  The vents look similar to bathroom vent fan covers.  The bottom vent on each side has a fan (operated by a wall switch) behind the vent cover that pulls air inward as far as I can tell.

What is the function of the two vents on each side?  Is air supposed to be pulled in the bottom vents and sent out the top vents to help warm the room?  I have no clue.  Right now, I'm not using the gas logs because they don't seem to heat very well.  As far as I know, there is no blower included with the gas logs, so basically they look nice but don't heat the room at all.  I've considered taking the gas logs out and just going with a wood-burning fireplace.

So, what is the function of the side vents?  How can I get more of the warm air into the room instead of up the chimney?  I assume that the chimney flue should always be open when the gas logs are in use?

Thanks!

Answer
Hello Charles, I am not sure what you have but it sounds like a Heatolator fire box. and yes the vents should send air around the fire box and heat it when the gas logs are lit. the damper should be open a bit (there should be a stop bolted to the damper)
I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have.
James