My woodstove is an insert. It is in a huge mass of brickwork in the livingroom. Who ever built the thing really knew his onions. It draws air in the side and blows it out some masonry vents just above the insert all by convection, no fan. It blows hot air hard enough that christmas decorations hanging from the mantelpiece blow around when it gets going. (about an hour after lighting the fire) You can put your hand on the brickwork and the longer the fire has been burning, the higher you can feel the heat coming off the bricks. If the fire is going all day, it will continue to blow hot air out the vent for a couple of hours after the fire has gone out at night.
Fireplaces in Texas are mostly about looks. I didn't want one, but my builder wouldn't let me delete it. Mine is a "semi-custom" home, so I had a lot of options, but some things were off the table. I wanted to go with a more efficient HVAC package, too, but the builder apparently had a cut-rate deal with a low-ball HVAC contractor, so I couldn't do that, either. However, the contractor did a crap job on the ductwork, and the code inspector made them remove every inch of the ductwork, and redo it. Anyway, what my fireplace primarily burns is money, so I don't use it much. Little by little, I'm replacing my builder special HVAC systems with decent stuff. CD
It's after midnight here, and the temperature outside is actually going up. It is very windy, but from the south, so it is warm and humid air. It's a good thing both of my furnaces now work, for a mere 600-bucks. :incazzato: Control circuit board fried. Really, there is a dime-sized scorch on the back of the board where it fried. The guy who did the repair is my age, but looks as old as dirt, and smells like a chain smoker. He could barely make it up the stairs without taking a break. I was worried he might die in my attic. But, he got it right. It's in the 70s for the next few days, and then a bunch of rain. I'm okay with that rain -- we need to fill the reservoirs for summer this time of year. CD