Fireplace Blowers, What Are They?

!±8± Fireplace Blowers, What Are They?

Some might ask what is a fireplace blower? Well to the uninitiated a fireplace blower is a device that can vastly improve the performance of your fireplace and the amount of heat it gives off and circulates into a room.

Essentially a fireplace blower is a device which takes heat from the fire and then pushes it into the room usually with the aid of a fan. Fireplace blowers tend to be formed from open ended cast iron tubing which is inserted into or around your existing wood or gas fire. The fire then radiates heat as usual but as it does it heats the air located in the iron tubes.

A small fan powered by an electrical motor then blows cool air into the tubes dispelling the heated air from within the tubes into the room in a jetting effect....but obviously not as powerfully! The result is that more of your room is heated with no lost radiance from your fireplace, essentially heat that would go up the chimney is absorbed into the iron tubes and expelled deeper into your living space than the fire could naturally radiate and hence the heating efficiency of your fireplace is improved.

Many modern gas fires are supplied with fireplace blowers already in place, you may not even realise you have one. However if you are sure you do not have a blower you can often get kits that can be fitted to your existing fire to improve its efficiency. Once you have located a kit for your fire and before you buy, you will need to identify that you have a power point close to your fireplace that can power up the fan unit on the blower. This may need a qualified electrician. The actual fitting of the blower is often a job that only takes an hour and instruction are generally supplied by the kit manufacturers.

Likewise with wood burning fireplaces you can get blower kits to improve the efficiency of your fire. These works on the same principle as the gas fire units and require a power outlet close by to operate and power the fan. In some cases the blower tubes actually form the grate of the fire and the fire is built on top of the blower.

Whichever type of fire you have, you should consider a blower unit if you don't have one already to get the maximum benefit out of your fire and to maximise your heating.