Need help with open fireplace (door or not)

[drimena]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum. I have a dilemma and no one in my surroundings could help me so I decided to turn to good old forum discussion. I'm sure lot of you here have a solid experience so any advice is welcomed. Recently I bought a small house which has a brick fireplace in the living room which burns perfectly well, I used it quite a few times and it hardly ever leaked smoke inside and it's beautiful to sit next to but as we all now open fireplaces are not efficient for heating. My question is, if I install a cast iron door with fire resistant glass will it be better in retaining the heat? I'm thinking if door have a choke I could control the air intake and a lot more heat will remain inside the house and not fly through the chimney. Does this makes sense?
If anyone did this before please let me know what is your experience. Any info appriciated.
Here is the photo of the fireplace:

and here is the type of door I would install, something similar

Thanks all

 

[DAKSY]

That’s gonna require a specialized design to fit that fireplace opening, & with pyroceramic glass, you’re probably not gonna like the price. Check Stoll Fireplace Doors for some design ideas.

 

[begreen]

The door will help but if the goal is to maximize heat output, an insert in the fireplace will produce more heat with less wood. What brands are available in Montenegro?

 

[drimena]

Yes I tried to find the suitable insert but was not able to. There are some local brands from Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia but all of these require heavy adaptation since my opening is pretty high but at the same time the fireplace is fairly shallow. So, adding a door will not make much difference in terms of heating efficiency? Because door will cost around 400-500€ so I l'm not sure if it makes sense to invest in this. If door will not make much difference I will leave it to be open because open fire is something special and I don't want to ruin it with the door

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

The one thing a door will do is protect you from sparks and embers flying out and hitting the wood floor. I would say give the doors a try.

 

[begreen]

Yes, a lot of European inserts are actually fireplaces designed to be built into masonry structures. That is not ideal here. Serbia makes some good stoves. It looks like the opening is tall enough that a freestanding stove located there might work.

TS-L – Tim Sistem

www.timsistem.rs

 

[drimena]

This one is the closest model I could find:

Etna kamin na drva s prednjim staklom - NORDflam

Kamin Etna je kamin manjih dimenzija. Izrađen je od izuzetno kvalitetnog lijevanog željeza, sa vatrootpornim staklom i sustavom za dovod zraka i za automatsko čišćenje stakla, čime se sprječava taloženje čađe i postiže veća učinkovitost.

ignis-aurum.hr

I think with slight adjustments it could fit nicely but I will have to analyze everything precisely. From everything I've read and heard I believe that the insert is the best solution and it's much more efficient than a door so for the slightly higher price I think it's the best solution.

 

[begreen]

That is a fireplace. It would definitely be a improvement, but not that good at putting the heat into the house. An insert will have a convection jacket around it that acts as a ducted plenum with a blower that convects the heat out into the room. This type of design is more common in the United States. Here is an example:

i2450 Non-Catalytic Efficient Wood Insert by Regency

This medium sized wood fireplace insert combines classic wood stove styling with modern wood burning technology to produce efficient long term burns.

www.regency-fire.com

Is anything like this sold in Europe?

Would the Nordflam freestanding stove fit?

Toria peć na drva - NORDflam

Toria peć na drva snage do 15 kW pruža izvrstan pogled na vatru uz ogromnu količinu topline. Peć Toria ima i vrata od lijevanog željeza sa strane, za lakši utovar većih cjepanica. Svi NORDflam proizvodi izrađeni su od vrhunskih materijala uz najnoviju proizvodnu tehnologiju. Jamstvo: 7...

ignis-aurum.hr

 

[drimena]

Thanks for the reply, yes the first one looks like a perfect solution but unfortunately I was not able to find anything similar in my region. The second one might be able to fit in with little adjustments. All in all you guys helped me to conclude that the best solution is to fit an insert inside and I will definitely do that. Now I just need to decide which one and it comes down to these two, Nordflam Etna and Nordflam Toria. Since my living room is pretty small I think Etna will be enough since it has a lower price tag. I'm going to make raw models of both with plywood just to be able to visualize how those two would fit and decide definitely. Thank you for all the help!

 

[begreen]

These inserts look like they are designed to have a grille above the fireplace to vent the heat into the room. Check with local installer for the best practices and heat.