Will my gas fireplace work when the power is out?
Flat Rock's historic homes, some dating to the 1800s, often center on oversized open masonry fireplaces — and an open wood hearth needs no power at all, but barely heats. A sealed gas insert with a millivolt or standing-pilot ignition gives you real, outage-proof heat while preserving the character. Natural gas here stays pressurized when the grid fails.
The open hearth problem
Those grand old open fireboxes are part of what makes Flat Rock's 1800s homes special, but as heaters they're working against you — an open masonry fireplace can run a net heat loss, drawing warm room air straight up the chimney, and the aging clay flue liners common here make draft unpredictable. In an outage they'll take the chill off a single room at best. The fix that respects the architecture is a sealed insert dropped into the existing firebox.
A sealed insert that runs grid-down
Choose that insert's ignition with outages in mind. A millivolt valve needs zero electricity — the pilot powers itself — so it burns through a power failure; a battery-backup unit switches to batteries automatically. Either turns a drafty, heat-losing hole in the wall into a fireplace you can actually rely on when the lines come down. Because natural gas serves Flat Rock, the fuel keeps flowing during an outage; only the ignition and the blower depend on your setup.
Preserving character, permitting the work
Sealing an old open fireplace with an insert also fixes the cold-air draft these historic rooms are known for, without altering the mantel or surround you love. Any gas insert and liner is licensed work — we pull the permit with Henderson County and meet the inspector. Remember the blower won't run in an outage, so heat is radiant, not fan-forced. Call (828) 545-0525 or visit our Asheville showroom, thirty minutes north.
Fireplace help in Flat Rock
We install and service fireplaces throughout Flat Rock and the rest of Henderson County — just 30 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.