Will my gas fireplace work during a power outage?
In Arden, a lot of the 1980s and '90s homes in Royal Pines and Skyland have open masonry fireplaces that pull heat out of the room — outage or not, they're weak heaters. Convert one to a sealed gas insert on a standing-pilot or battery-backup ignition and you get a real heater that keeps working when the power's out.
Tired open fireplaces, turned into heaters
The established Arden neighborhoods around Skyland, Royal Pines, and Glenn Bridge were built with open masonry fireplaces that were never efficient — an open firebox draws warm room air up the flue and can run a net heat loss. In an outage, an open hearth gives you flickering light and not much warmth. A sealed gas insert changes the math entirely: it captures the heat in the room, runs 70 percent efficient or better, and — if it's on a standing pilot or a battery backup — keeps radiating with the grid down. That's the upgrade most Arden homeowners are actually after when they call about their fireplace.
Which ignition to ask for
When we convert an open Arden hearth to a sealed insert, the ignition choice is where outage performance is won or lost. A millivolt (standing-pilot) insert makes its own current and needs no wall power. A battery-backup electronic insert lights off a pack when the grid's down. Either one beats central heat, which stops the instant its blower loses power. You'll lose the insert's own fan in an outage, so we place it in the room you'd actually gather in — the radiant heat off the glass carries the space even with the blower idle.
Permitted with Buncombe County
Extending the gas line to a converted firebox is licensed work — a mason can reface the surround but can't legally connect the fuel in North Carolina. We pull the Buncombe County permit, size the liner, pressure-test the line, and meet the inspector. Call (828) 545-0525 and we'll tell you whether your fireplace heats without power.
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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