Fireplaces are meant to keep your home warm and cozy. They can even be used to lower your reliance on your furnace and bring you lower energy bills as a result. That makes it all the more frustrating when cold air finds its way into your home through your chimney. Whether you feel a constant cold draft when you’re chimney’s not in use or you feel gusts of cold air when it’s particularly windy, you need a solution.
Install Fireplace Doors
While many fireplaces are equipped with fireplace doors, few are more than ornamental. You can replace your fireplace doors with heavier grade ceramic doors. These will do a better job of insulating your fireplace. These doors will help block any drafts coming down your chimney and help prevent warm air from exiting your home through your chimney. As an added bonus, these doors can help you capture more of the heat from your fireplace when it’s in use because they absorb then radiate out the heat from your fireplace.
Consider a Top-Sealing Damper
When your fireplace is in use, your chimney serves as a necessary escape for smoke. When the fireplace isn’t in use, your chimney is like an open window. It allows hot air to escape your home and cold drafts to find their way in. A top-sealing chimney damper can solve this problem. Unlike traditional throat dampers, which feature a metal-on-metal closure, top-sealing dampers feature a gasket closure that fully seal off the chimney opening when the fireplace isn’t in use.
Avoid the Vacuum
In modern, air-tight homes, any appliance that requires air, whether it’s a kitchen vent, bathroom vent, furnace or gas clothes drier, can create a vacuum. As these appliances utilize the air within the home, air can’t be drawn in through windows or gaps in the home to replace the lost air. As an alternative, cold air is drawn down the chimney to replace lost air in the home. While you might have to look for a permanent ventilation solution to this problem, you might be able to lessen the chimney draft by aiming to use ventilation fans less or cracking a window slightly near the appliance that’s being operated.
Have Your Chimney Evaluated
Often, when cold air is being drawn down the chimney, the cause is an improperly sized chimney. Chimneys that are too short or too large for the fireplace appliance can allow cold air into your home through the chimney. If you notice that cold drafts and bursts of air are coming down the chimney, you might consider having your chimney inspected by a certified chimney technician.
If you’re frustrated that your fireplace is bringing in cold air, rather than helping to keep your home cozy, call Fluesbrothers Chimney Service to schedule an appointment today! We can evaluate your chimney and help you find a solution, whether it’s installing fireplace doors or a top-sealing damper, addressing an airflow problem or resizing your flue.