FIREPLACES
DIRECT VENT GAS FIREPLACES
Direct Vent Gas Fireplaces create a wonderful atmosphere for smaller rooms during the autumn and fall months. Take the chill out of the air as you curl up with a book, or spend the night in entertaining guests by installing a gas fireplace insert.
With direct vent gas fireplaces, no chimney is required, as the fireplace is vented directly through a wall or a roof, meaning you can design and install your fireplace in unique locations that weren’t possible before with traditional fireplaces. Even your basement can be turned into a warm and inviting area for family and friends to enjoy.
The direct vent draws in air from the outside, while venting the combustible air outside. This has several advantages as the fireplace will not use already warm indoor heat for fuel. Also when your power goes out, you’ll be able to keep warm with our gas fireplaces. Finally, direct venting also eliminates heat loss that you’d get with other fireplaces, as the heat is contained behind a state of the art glass piece that slowly dissipates hot air.
To view the selection of direct vent gas fireplaces we carry, visit one of the brand pages listed below:
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You will have many considerations when trying to choose your Direct Vent Fireplace. You’ll want to think about where you want to have your fireplace installed as well as heating and design elements. There are many specifics you can go over with Hamilton Home Comfort but here are a few main considerations:
BTU’s – BTU stands for a British Thermal Unit which is an energy unit. It is approximately the energy needed to heat one pound of water for 1 Fahrenheit. 1 BTU = 1,055 joules. 1BTU/hour = 0.293 watt. There are actually calculators available online to help with this as well. Calculator.net for instance determined that one well-insulated 1,000-square-foot home in Boston needs around 24,000 BTUs to heat in winter.
Glass/Viewable Area – There are lot of different sizings to consider. You’ll want to know theactual height and width of the unit as well as with the framing. And if you are adding surrounds, that will add significantly to the area required. One easy gauge for comparison sakes is the glass or viewable area in square inches.
Steady State – There are different efficiency ratings available. The steady state efficiency is a measure of a fireplace’s efficiency once the room is already heated.
AFUE – AFUE is a government standard and stands for Amount Fuel Utilization Efficiency and measures how efficient a fireplace is at heating up. It measures the amount of heat actually delivered to your house compared to the amount of fuel that you must supply to the fireplace. Thus, a fireplace that has an 65% AFUE rating converts 65% of the fuel that you supply to heat — the other 35% is lost.
BTU’s