I know its not much better but, I believe our insert is rated at 40% efficiency. We plan to move to a more efficient catalytic wood burning insert as soon as we can swing the finances. Vermont Castings claims 78% efficiency of one of their models.
Kirk wrote: Your insert with a fan is probably 300% more efficient than a fireplace. That means instead of 98% of the heating value of the fuel being lost up the chimney only 90% is lost. THe only fireplace I know of that is worth owning is the Finnish masonry firplace and I think it weighs 2 to 3 tons. Definitely not a trivial second storey affair. I myself favor biodiesel cogeneration so electricity and heat are obtained from the same fuel. Can reduce electricity cost to around 5 cents a kilowatt hour. Then there is the reliability of not being vulnerable to problems on the grid. Lousiana is a good case in point re not having your own. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
