Heat Recovery and Distribution
The heat distributor increases the efficiency of a closed fireplace or stove with a hood.
Principle of heat distribution
A closed fireplace offers excellent performance: between 70 and 85%. However, it can only heat a portion of your home, remote parts cannot benefit from this heat. A heat distributor can be used to heat other rooms through a network of tubes that will blow hot air recovered from the hood of the fireplace. This system can adapt to a wood stove, provided that it is equipped with a hood.
Installing a heat distributor in a fireplace or stove
The installation of a heat distributor is easier to achieve when building a fireplace, but can nonetheless be adapted to an existing fireplace or stove.
The heat distributor requires the installation of four main elements:
A fan is installed in the attic:
- It sucks hot air into the hood of the fireplace or stove.
- It then blows the hot air into various selected parts of the home.
A sleeve is connected to the fan and down into the hood. It is in this sleeve that warm air extracted from the hood circulates.
A network of ducts distributes hot air into different rooms through air outlets. These ducts are insulated to prevent heat loss.
The air outlets must be installed in the ceiling or high up on walls.
Fan power is calculated based on the number of rooms to be heated but also the length of the sleeves. Only a professional will be able to properly and effectively scale your heat spreader.
Advantages of Heat Distributor
The heat distributor offers significant advantages:
- It increases the efficiency of your fireplace or wood stove
- It offers more thermal comfort while saving you money: you use your central heating less in rooms equipped with air blowers
- This system is quiet and unobtrusive
Heat Recovery for Fireplace
The installation of heat recovery in a fireplace is an easy way to increase the efficiency of a wood burning fireplace or open fire. There are two types of heat recovery for fireplaces: heat recovery by water and air.
Air Recovery
An open fireplace has a yield of 10-20%. Most of the hot air escapes through the chimney without you benefiting. A heat exchanger for a fireplace is a device that allows you to inject more hot air into the room. It thus offers a yield of between 30 and 40%, twice the normal yield.
The principle is simple:
A fan draws air from the room. This air passes through a flexible tube that leads to a heater in the center of the open fire in your fireplace. The air is heated in the heater and then passes out through the vents located in the hearth.
Water recovery
The water recovery heat exchanger turns your fireplace into a chimney boiler. The principle is simple: a network of tubes is placed in the hearth of the fireplace. This network is connected to your heating system. The water then flows through the tubes to be heated and then goes back into the heating circuit to supply radiators, underfloor heating, a hot water tank, etc.
The installation of heat recovery using water requires a little more work than heat recovery using air.
Air heat recovery system
The installation of a heat recovery system for a fireplace usually consists of three elements:
A fan draws air from the room and blows it into the circuit of the recovery system.
- The fan simply plugs into an electrical outlet.
- It is placed either on the left or right side of your chimney.
A flexible tube connects the blower to the heater body
- The fresh air passes through the tube to be warmed by the heat then passes to the fireplace hearth
The cast hollow heater allows air to warm up before being blown into the room.
- It is installed directly in the hearth of the fireplace.
Water Heat Recovery System
A water heat recovery system does not require modification of your chimney. Indeed, the tube network is simply placed in the hearth.
However, for connection to the heating system it is recommended that you hire a professional. This will ensure installation according to local standards with, for example, the installation of a safety valve or an anti-boiling device.
The system can be autonomous or a boiler. It can also be coupled with a heat pump or solar collectors.
Benefits of Heat Recovery for Fireplace
A heat recovery system for fireplaces has many advantages:
- It increases the normally very low efficiency of an open fireplace.
- The fan normally has low power consumption and low operating noise.
Both air and water based systems optimize the performance of your fireplace by turning it into a real heater for the whole house, so you save on your heating bills.