Arden's best high-altitude answer is usually hiding inside a fireplace you already own: Royal Pines and Skyland are full of 1980s-and-90s open masonry fireplaces that pull more heat out of the house than they put in, and a sealed gas or EPA wood insert converts them into genuine heaters. Natural gas runs through south Asheville's mains, and we're 15 minutes up the road.
The open fireplace is costing you heat
Walk into a Royal Pines or Skyland living room and odds are good there's an open masonry fireplace from the 1980s or 90s — handsome, drafty, and quietly expensive, because an open fireplace can run a net heat loss, sending your furnace-warmed air up the flue. At 2,150 feet, with cool evenings most of the year, that's a lot of wasted seasons. A sealed insert reverses the flow: the Napoleon Oakville X4 or Kozy Heat Chaska 25L on natural gas, or an EPA wood insert for heat that ignores the power grid, all running 70 percent efficient or better behind glass, with a correctly sized liner making the old chimney draft the way it never quite did.
On the mains, near the showroom
Arden sits on the south Asheville gas mains, which keeps these projects simple — no propane logistics, just a licensed gas connection, a Buncombe County permit, and an inspector we meet ourselves. Since Helene, an outage-proof hearth is among the most requested upgrades in this corridor: battery-backup ignition or a millivolt Valor H5 keeps the living room warm when Hendersonville Road goes dark. Biltmore Park's retail and office spaces keep the commercial side of our calendar busy here too — a gas fireplace is as at home in a lobby as a living room. The showroom at 629 Emma Rd is 15 minutes north with these units burning on display; call (828) 545-0525 or stop in, and the in-home assessment is free.
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.
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