Can I Add Outside Air Intake?

[Chris611]

This is a great forum. This is my first time here. I have spent a lot of time looking through the old posts and an learning a lot. I found this site because I was searching for a Cold Air Intake kit for my fireplace. I bought a house last fall with the fireplace already in it. Its an old Preway model 2406A. Sounds like from what I read, it's pretty cheap and inefficient. I can't afford to replace it now, and don't expect it to heat the entire house, but just enjoy the aesthetic value. I would however like to at least not lose ground in terms of the fireplace sucking in cold air though the windows, cracks, etc... to fuel the fire. I was hoping to be able to retrofit a cold air intake to help with this. Seems to make sense. It will be tight to install since there is brick around the fireplace, but I think I could get enough room. This brick only goes up about 48", so I can remove some paneling and have access to the top, sides and rear of the fireplace. Only the back wall has 4 stones protecting it, the sides are 3 seperate panels, I believe the 2nd and 3rd panels have insulation between them. Does anyone know of a kit that I can buy and retrofit to this fireplace? I have searched and read about kits, but can find noone that actually sells them. I realize I won't find one for Preway, but was hoping with some modification I can make another models kit work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for a great site.

Chris

 

[Willhound]

Chris

I know that this doesn't answer your question, and it is only my opinion, but my suggestion is that the work and $$$ involved in trying to retro fit a cold air feed to this unit is not worth it.

When we bought our current house 5 years ago, a large part of the purchase decision was based on the beautiful 12 foot wide sandstone fireplace in the rec-room. For the last five years we've been enjoying the esthetic value of the fireplace, but as you point out, sucking a lot of warm air out of the house in the process. I finally learned to just turn the thermostat down and huddle next to the open fireplace to get some of the radiant heat if we wanted to burn it.

Finally, after 5 years I've bit the bullet and purchased a new wood insert so that I can eliminate the "warm air suck" problem, and also to cut my NG bills.

So, enjoy your fireplace guilt free for now, and take the $$$ you would have spent on the cold air feed and save it for a future date when you can afford a proper insert.

Willhound

 

[wg_bent]

I'll second Willhounds post.

 

[Chris611]

Thanks for the replies. I was just hoping that there would be a simple way to add the cold air intake. I also just like to tinker with things. My wife will tell you that I tinker until it's broke... If anyone knows of a kit, I would be interested to see what it looks like. Thanks again for the replies. I have been reading all the back posts this afternoon after I plowed the drive...6" of snow and currently -1 deg F... . Amazing how much I am learning here.

Thanks
Chris