Will my gas fireplace work when the power is out?
At Waynesville's elevation — nearly 2,650 feet, where nights run 10 to 15 degrees colder than Asheville — a fireplace that works without power isn't a luxury. The answer is yes if yours has a standing-pilot, millivolt, or battery-backup ignition; a plug-in electronic-only unit goes dark. Given how long your heating season runs, it's worth knowing which you have.
The stakes are higher up here
Waynesville's heating season runs about three weeks longer than Asheville's, and a winter outage at this elevation gets uncomfortable fast. That's exactly why the ignition type matters so much locally. A millivolt or standing-pilot gas unit needs zero electricity — the pilot flame powers the valve itself — and will burn straight through a grid-down stretch. A battery-backup unit, like many Napoleon models, switches to batteries automatically. Only a purely electronic unit leaves you cold, and that's the one to upgrade before December.
Those drafty Hazelwood fireboxes
A lot of older Hazelwood homes lean on open masonry fireplaces that were never efficient heaters — an open firebox can actually run a net heat loss, pulling warm room air up the chimney. If you want dependable outage heat here, a sealed gas insert with millivolt ignition, or a wood-burning option like the Regency Grandview that kept people warm through Helene, is a far better bet than the open hearth you have now. Waynesville is mixed-fuel country — natural gas in parts of town, propane up the slopes — and both work for power-optional heat.
Radiant heat holds, the blower rests
Even on a unit that lights without power, the blower stays off in an outage since the fan needs electricity — so you get steady radiant warmth off the glass rather than forced air. At Waynesville temperatures that radiant heat still holds a room comfortably. We permit through Haywood County and meet the inspector on every gas job. Call (828) 545-0525 to find out what your fireplace will do when the lines come down.
Fireplace help in Waynesville
We install and service fireplaces throughout Waynesville and the rest of Haywood County — just 35 minutes west from our Asheville-area showroom.