Does replacing an open wood fireplace with an insert improve the air in my house?
Yes — and in Arden's 1980s-90s Royal Pines and Skyland homes, tired open masonry fireplaces are exactly the kind an insert transforms. Those drafty open boxes both spill fine particulate into the room and pull warm air up the flue. A sealed insert stops the smoke and turns a heat-losing hole into a real heater at the same time.
The drafty open box, quantified
Arden's established neighborhoods are full of open masonry fireplaces that have been pulling cold-air drafts into rooms for decades. An open hearth like that is at the weather's mercy — it backdrafts smoke in on downdraft days, and even when it's drawing well it can run a net heat loss, sending more warm room air up the chimney than the fire ever gives back. So you breathe more particulate and pay to heat air that promptly leaves the house.
In tired 1980s-90s fireboxes, both problems tend to have been quietly getting worse year after year without anyone naming the cause. Sizing matters as much as sealing, though — bigger isn't better, and an oversized unit in one of these rooms just short-cycles and wastes fuel. We measure the space and match the insert to it, not to the biggest box on the floor.
A sealed insert that finally heats
On Arden's natural-gas mains, a direct-vent gas insert like the Napoleon Oakville X4 seals combustion behind glass, vents everything outside, and pushes real heat back into the room instead of losing it up the flue. If you'd rather keep wood, an EPA-certified Regency or Superior insert with a right-sized stainless liner burns far cleaner and actually heats the space. Either way it's two fixes in one — the indoor particulate stops, and the open box's net heat loss becomes a genuine heater.
It's the upgrade Skyland and Royal Pines owners are most often surprised by: the same firebox that's been chilling the room for years becomes the warmest, cleanest spot in the house. We handle the licensed gas line and permit it with Buncombe County. Fifteen minutes south of our showroom, near Biltmore Park. (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Arden
We install and service fireplaces throughout Arden and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- Do wood-burning fireplaces pollute the air inside your house?
- Will converting my wood fireplace to gas improve my indoor air quality?
- Does a wood-burning insert pollute less than an open fireplace?
- Will a gas insert seal off the drafts and old smoke odors coming from my open fireplace chimney?
- Does closing the glass doors on a wood-burning fireplace keep smoke out of the room?