For many homeowners, fireplaces have become the nice china of home features: dusted off only for special occasions. Although attractive, they are messy to operate, and that homey glow they produce ...

If you’ve got an inefficient fireplace, you might as well be burning dollar bills. Any heat generated is offset by the warmth of your house being sucked up the chimney and outside. According to the ...

Our house has a family room that is primarily walled by double-pane windows. It also has an old-fashioned, open-hearth brick fireplace that goes floor to ceiling. The brickwork extends to the outside ...

With the price of home heating fuel uncertain, homeowners who have fireplaces may want to use their hearths to supplement their heating system. But while an old-fashioned open-hearth fire might ...

Rising energy costs means that most of us will be paying more to heat our homes this winter. And unfortunately, that’s only one of many price increases we’ve seen over the last year or so. This makes ...

With the price of home heating fuel uncertain, homeowners who have fireplaces may be tempted to use their hearths to supplement their heating system. But while an old-fashioned open-hearth fire might ...

Every house Susan Moch and her husband, Roland Poirier, have owned during their 40 years of marriage has had a fireplace. But fireplaces are notorious for wasting energy because the heat escapes ...