AboutCharles E. Felker Expertise Energy questions related to homeowners and their energy supplier.
Questions related to process control.
HVAC questions
Natural gas transmission, distribution.
Experience Penn State grad 1954 in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering. Forty five years experience in process control, natural gas processing, compression, transmission and distribution
Organizations ASME
Education/Credentials BS Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering Pennsylvania State University
Question My wife and I are building a custom house in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We are in the process of selecting a gas fireplace insert and are overwhelmed with choices. We also can not find enough competitive dealers to obtain a competitive price for a model that we'd actually like (it would be nice to get at least 2 bids or prices for the same gas insert company and model).
Would you know which brands and models are the most cost affective and energy efficient?
Our house will be 2400 sq ft with cement floors and a metal roof. We will have propane. The insert will be located in the great room, in a corner, more or less in the central part of the house, so we'd like to use it in the winters to heat most of the house and NOT for just asthetics.
Please advise...we are meeting our contractor this Saturday and need an answer.
Thanks so much in advance!
Richard
Clovis, California
Answer I havn't researched the latest gas (propane) fireplaces, but I have a log home here in Eastern PA and put one in when I built the house. Some points I can pass along that are still valid from years ago:
1. Try to find a burner that takes outside air for combustion.
2. A circulating fan is almost a necessity if you really want to heat a room, and hope local power interruptions are not common. Without my fan, the fire looks nice but won't heat the room
3. Efficiencies are spelled out by the vendors, pick the highest you can find
4. Most important, I have found, make sure the burner valve/thermocouple/and controls are easy to work on and very accessible
