by Tom
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by Tom
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If you have a fireplace, you have a hole in your roof. That hole, your chimney’s flue, sucks the warm air from your furnace, fireplace, or woodstove right out of your house. You can close off that hole and dramatically reduce your heating costs by installing a top-sealing damper. In fact, most homeowners find the dampers pay for themselves in energy savings in the first year.
How a Top-Sealing Damper Saves Money
Traditionally, a cast iron throat damper is placed inside your flue and is opened only when you are using your fireplace. But even brand new cast iron throat dampers are notorious for letting heat leak out of homes. And older ones that have deteriorated, warped, or rusted allow that heat to gush out of your home.
Top-Sealing Lyemance Dampers can pay for themselves in a year.
New top-sealing damper designs don’t rely on a leaky metal-to-metal seal. Instead, they have a silicone rubber gasket that provides a true seal, keeping the warm air in your home and the colder, winter air out. This tighter seal reduces energy loss by as much as 90% over conventional dampers.
Instead of being mounted inside your chimney, as traditional dampers are, the more energy-efficient top-sealing styles are mounted atop your chimney or flue, like chimney caps. Energy-efficient dampers can even be purchased as a combination damper and chimney cap.
If you feel a cool draft on your feet when standing near your fireplace, you can be sure your fireplace damper is letting your heating dollars escape through that hole in your roof. But an energy-efficient damper is an easy, cost-effective way to control your heating expense this winter.
Ready to install one? Check out our how-to video.
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