Hi,
I have a wood burning stove installed in an old fireplace which works really well except that the fireplace back is the bare stone external wall - see pic below. We like the look of the stone fireplace but we lose a lot of heat to the outside. I currently have a piece of leftover underfloor heating insulation, with some radiator reflector foil behind the stove, and then the logs stacked up which provides reasonable reflection of the radiated heat and insulation but the logs (especially as they get drier) are a fire risk and the foil is unsightly.
I am looking for a way to insulate the fireplace area without completely losing the 'look' of the old stone fireplace. I considered external insulation but this would look terrible against the old sandstone exterior, then stacking the logs on the outside of the wall to give a limited exterior insulation but this goes against the advice of keeping the log pile away from the house. I am now looking at these http://shop.vitcas.com/vermiculite-fire-resistant-board-brick-effect-fire-proof-insulation-670-p.asp brick effect boards but the amount of boards I would need to fully insulate the back and sides of the fireplace alone would be about £300.
Are there any cheaper/better ways to achieve the insulation without losing the traditional look of the fireplace, or am I being unrealistic? Just seems that to spend £300+ is not cost effective as it would take me years to recoup that cost against the heating bills.
View media item 58919
I have a wood burning stove installed in an old fireplace which works really well except that the fireplace back is the bare stone external wall - see pic below. We like the look of the stone fireplace but we lose a lot of heat to the outside. I currently have a piece of leftover underfloor heating insulation, with some radiator reflector foil behind the stove, and then the logs stacked up which provides reasonable reflection of the radiated heat and insulation but the logs (especially as they get drier) are a fire risk and the foil is unsightly.
I am looking for a way to insulate the fireplace area without completely losing the 'look' of the old stone fireplace. I considered external insulation but this would look terrible against the old sandstone exterior, then stacking the logs on the outside of the wall to give a limited exterior insulation but this goes against the advice of keeping the log pile away from the house. I am now looking at these http://shop.vitcas.com/vermiculite-fire-resistant-board-brick-effect-fire-proof-insulation-670-p.asp brick effect boards but the amount of boards I would need to fully insulate the back and sides of the fireplace alone would be about £300.
Are there any cheaper/better ways to achieve the insulation without losing the traditional look of the fireplace, or am I being unrealistic? Just seems that to spend £300+ is not cost effective as it would take me years to recoup that cost against the heating bills.
View media item 58919
