Does replacing an open wood fireplace with an insert improve the air in my house?
Yes — and in Fairview, propane-and-wood country where heavily wooded lots make wood heat a way of life, a sealed insert cleans up your indoor air and your chimney at once. An open wood fire spills fine particulate into the room and cakes the flue with creosote. An EPA-certified wood insert burns far cleaner and drafts through a proper liner.
Wood heat, without the smoke indoors
Fairview's wooded lots out Cane Creek and Garren Creek make wood the natural fuel, but an open fireplace is the least clean way to burn it — smoke and PM2.5 drift into the room on every downdraft, and creosote buildup in the flue is the leading cause of chimney fires around here when the fall sweep gets skipped. An EPA-certified Regency or Superior wood insert changes both sides of that: it burns hot and complete behind glass, so far less smoke enters the air you breathe and far less creosote coats the liner.
It's the same wood you'd burn anyway, just contained — the fire runs hotter and more complete behind glass, so you're not sending half the potential heat and a plume of smoke straight up the flue and into the room on every reload.
Propane's just as clean, and power-optional
Plenty of Fairview homes run on propane, and a direct-vent propane insert seals combustion off entirely — nothing into the room — while a zero-electricity Valor Portrait keeps heating when storms drop these rural lines. Whichever fuel you choose, connecting it is licensed work: we permit with Buncombe County, pressure-test the line, and meet the inspector.
The old open fireplace was quietly costing you on three fronts at once — dirtier indoor air, a creosote-lined flue, and real heat lost up the chimney. A sealed insert answers all three, and with any wood system we'll still recommend the annual chimney service that keeps a liner clean and a home safe. Fifteen minutes east of our Asheville showroom. (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Fairview
We install and service fireplaces throughout Fairview and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes east 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?