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On a cold night in the winter there’s nothing nicer than building a proper pile of wood in your fireplace for a cheery fire. First the shavings, then the kindling and then the dry pieces of wood that will keep the room toasty for hours. Well the fire starts well and then goes on to do what you expect. It’s a great atmosphere in the room and then, with just embers in the firebox, you go to your room to sleep.

In the morning, you wake up to the sound of your furnace, and as you walk into the room with the fireplace you realize why the furnace has been burning oil for the past hour. The room is ice cold. “But that’s impossible!” you say. The fireplace was so hot the back was glowing!” Well, the fireplace might have been going well enough have heat in the home for most of the day but you probably don’t know much about convection and how it literally robs your home of heat. In other words your money literally goes up the chimney.

Heres what happens. In a normal fireplace you open the damper, that is, you open a small door at the bottom of the chimney to let the smoke up the chimney thereby creating a draft to keep the fire going. If the daft is close too early after the fire dies down the home may begin to fill up with smoke or carbon monoxide, a dangerous gas by-product of combustion. This is because excessive house depressurization can cause the leakage of the combustion and toxic products into the indoor air.

Fresh-air fireplaces prevent this negative pressure by bringing in air from the outside to provide oxygen to the fire and then ventilating it up the chimney. In this way it does not rob oxygen from inside the home which can cause discomfort and will not depressurize the home causing the air to become, in some case, poisonous.

If you have a traditional fireplace replace it with a fresh-air wood stove insert or fireplace insert. In this way you can have your cheery fire without it being a health risk. It will also prevent the chimney from bein an expressway for heat loss.

If you can’t afford a fireplace insert, or can’t be bothered, put a plug in it. Stuff a large potato or onion bag with plastic shopping bags, go up on the roof and stuff it down the chimney. Tie a cord around the top of the plug so you can retrieve it later. Then measure the top of the flue and cut a piece of 3/4″ plywood or board of equal thickness to match the flue. Back up on the roof put a bead of exterior sealer on the lip of the flue and press the wood down flat over the opening.

Your chimney is now plugged so clean out the fireplace and put in some decorations so someone doesn’t unintentionally start a fire! You now have a warmer home.