I LOVE my new fireplace

Just purchased a new, super-efficient 
Lennox Brentwood fireplace

I grew up having a fireplace in the home. But we rarely used it -- just for Thanksgiving and Christmas, after the big dinner, sitting around the living room with relatives.

That was one of my favorite things ever, growing up.

When I bought my own home, one of the things that I loved about it was that it had a fireplace. But it was totally inefficient, with a fake-brick face. It was kind of ugly, but not too bad. I loved to curl up in front of my fireplace and read or just stare at the flames after a long day.

Only problem was, was that it would be about 110 degrees in front of the fire, and about 40 degrees on the other side of the room and in other rooms in the house. It seemed to bring in the cold air from outside through every little tiny leak available. So the rest of the house was freezing, and in front of the fire, it was super hot.

My new Brentwood fireplace by Lennox

That's why I LOVE my new Brentwood fireplace. It's highly efficient -- in other words, there's an airtight seal on the door, which you keep closed, normally. Outside air to feed the fire at varying degrees comes from underneath the fireplace through a vent that goes directly outside. The blowers, which are thermostatically controlled, move that hot air around the room. It's nice and warm in front of the fireplace -- not uncomfortably hot. And the rest of the house is a little cooler, of course, but not freezing.

I turn on my ceiling fan to move the air around a bit, and sometimes put on my whole-house fan to get that warm air into the other rooms. (I could have paid extra to tap into my ductwork, but that was more than I wanted to spend.)

These high-efficiency fireplaces aren't cheap. With the brick and stone work and the fireplace installation, the total cost was about $6,000. But worth every penny, in my opinion.

I am using a lot less gas to heat the house, and I love having the fire burning, watching the flames as they dance, and feeling that wonderful warmth.

I highly recommend this product. If you love watching fires in the cold winter, but you don't want to just let all that hot air go up your chimney instead of heating your home, these are wonderful!