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7 Reasons to Have an Outdoor Kitchen

grilling chicken

In the Mediterranean, it is widespread for families to be cooking outdoors. This style of cooking has become a trendy thing to do in the US. Homeowners are embracing the joys of using an outdoor kitchen in their backyards during the warmer summer months. If you’re building a new house, or adding to your current space, creating a place to cook outdoors can be a great investment for your home.

Great for Entertaining

A huge benefit of adding an outdoor kitchen to your yard is that they’re the best for backyard entertaining. When food is prepared outside, your guests can hangout around the grill and enjoy the company as the meal is cooking. It tends to get stuffy in an indoor kitchen when everyone spends time around the stove, but outside there’s much more open space and fresh air. You can add some comfort for your guests by adding patio heaters, outdoor seating, lighting, and more personal touches.

Improves Your Home Value

Home buyers are always looking for unique and useful additions to homes. Having an outdoor kitchen can attract buyers when you are looking to sell – especially if they were looking to add one to whatever home they ended up purchasing. Having this already in place can drive up the selling price for convenience and looks.

Save on Utility Bills

As you cook outside in the summer, your air conditioner be on as high to keep you home cool while cooking hot foods. The temperature in your house goes up a  few degrees from using the over and stove. When you cook outside, you will save on some energy.

Keeps Cooking Smells Outdoors

There are a lot of foods that smell great while being cooked, some other foods couldn’t smell worse. When you cook, strong-smelling meals such fried foods or fish, those smells can linger around your house for days. When you cook those same foods outside, you won’t be smelling any of it inside.

Expanding Your Living Space

You can build your kitchen on any existing space that already in your backyard. This can open up your living space to make it seem bigger and newer. In the outdoor cooking area, you and your friends and family can have celebrations or just take in the beautiful weather.

Save Money on Restaurant Meals

Having an outdoor kitchen can feel like a whole new dining experience. Skip the restaurants and overpriced food, and instead cook at home in your outdoor oasis. You’ll save some money and you’ll be able to enjoy the amazing space you created.

Contact us

Contact New England Hearth & Home for all of your outdoor kitchen needs! Give us a call at 781-562-0071 or fill out our contact form.

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Benefits of Having a Pellet Stove

pellet stove burning

Heating a stove with pellets has many advantages. The same with oil or gas heating, a pellet stove has automatic ignition. Pellet stoves are environmentally friendly because of the CO2-neutral fuel. New England Hearth & Home provides pellet stoves in our line of inventory. Here are some of the benefits of owning a pellet stove in your home! With so many options for fireplaces and stoves, it’s good to know what you’ll be working with.

Temperature

Depending on the model you get, you can change the temperature with a thermostat or remote. Some models can also be programmed to turn on and off at certain times. Pellet stoves can start to burn and go out without having to touch it, depending on the program that is selected.

90% Efficiency

Pellet stoves have an efficiency of up to 90% or even more. Only some of the energy from pellets are lost in the chimney. Pellet stoves are more efficient than wood-burning stoves, with only 40-50% efficiency. Open fires only have an efficiency of around 5-15%.

No Need for a Chimney

Pellets stoves have an active smoke extraction system – therefore, it’s unnecessary to have a chimney specifically for your stove. The gases can be blown into a chimney that you already have. Smoke can also escape through a tube that runs through the outer wall of your home.

Autonomy

The pellet reserve in a stove can be at full power for around 12 hours at a time. This being said, the stove would need to be filled around twice a day if you want it running all day long if you want it at full capacity. That’s up to you and how much heat you want in your home at a time.

Cheap Fuel and Convenient

Pellets are cheap compared to other methods of fuel, and the price for them has been stable over the past few years. They come supplied in bags, and can also be delivered to your home in larger quantities than you may find in a store. A pellet stove can have about 1.5 – 2.5 bags of pellets in it at one time, but consumption depends on how big the room is that you want to be heated.

Contact Us

New England Hearth & Home sells and installs an array of different types of stoves and fireplaces. If you are interested in a new pellet stove, contact us by phone at 781-562-0071 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to helping you choose the best pellet stove for your home!

 

 

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How Fireplace Innovations Are Changing Home Design

electric fireplaces

People enjoy spaces with fireplaces more than those without them. New advances with fireplaces has made it easier and more affordable to add them to more rooms than just a living room in your home. Having a fireplace in a bedroom or basement can add a calming ambiance, as well as style. In the past, adding a fireplace in a home in general was more of a challenge than it is today.

Dynamic Heat Control

For some rooms in your home, you want the heat from a fireplace to create warmth. In others, it’s just for the look. Adding in dynamic heat control, you can have a fireplace just for the style and aesthetic rather than for the use of heating. Adding a fireplace to a kitchen can make it a great gathering spot, but do you really want it heating an already warmer room? Dynamic heating can make it so it’s not expelling a ton of heat and keeps the unit cooler than normal.

Electric Innovations

The idea of having an electric fireplace could have been unappealing in the past. This day in age, electric fireplaces can add a modern type of elegance to any room in your home. Technology has advanced, and has made the look of the fake flames more realistic and believable. Electric fireplaces are a great option for homes with restrictive rules and regulation. This can include condos. These are the most cost-efficient fireplaces and can come in a range of designs and styles to fit any room in your house. Also, with electric you can choose whether or not to have the heat on. You can still enjoy the comfort and look of the flames without getting the room too warm.

Flexible Venting

Flexible venting allows you to put a fireplace in spaces that originally wouldn’t be able to sustain one due to plumbing, beams, and studs. Flex vents allow flexibility to be woven around obstacles in your home. They require a lot less joints than a typical fireplace vent while still being up to code for being a safe form of ventilation. Flex venting can also be cheaper way of having a fireplace installed, due to their being fewer pieces of equipment to install.

Contact Us

New England Hearth & Home can provide you with fireplaces to fit your home’s style and heating needs. Feel free to contact us by phone at 781-562-0771 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

 

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How to Start a Fire in a Stove or Wood Insert

wood stove

Properly starting a fire in a wood stove or insert is a science, and the average person doesn’t know that. Good fires start slow, and then becomes bigger as it sits. Don’t don’t just throw in a match with the logs, learn the correct way to do it!

Seasoning

The best type of wood to use in a wood burning fireplace is dry and seasoned wood. You want the fire to have a clean burn, with mostly heat and a little amount of smoke. Wood that is seasoned is usually used indoors, but some people use it outside for bonfires and fire pits. Seasoned wood is very light because it is stripped of moisture, and that’s the type you want to use. A dense log will be harder to light and will cause a bunch of smoke.

Before Lighting

Newspaper is the best material for kindling the fire because of how dry and thin it is, and flammable. You don’t want to use magazines or catalogs because they are made from thicker paper, and the chemicals used in the ink are not good to breathe in. Make sure the scrunch the newspaper up and make a layer of it at the bottom of the stove before laying down the wood. Use split logs, instead of round, when laying the fire. Split wood is easier to light, and you can add in round logs after the fire is lit.

Stacking the Wood

Try to lay the wood down in a jenga pattern and put the first layer of logs in a vertical pattern with some space in between each log. Alternate between vertical and horizontal until all of your desired wood is placed. This makes the flames rise at a steady pace, rather than all at once. A teepee-style wood structure goes up in flames right away, which is not what you want. Stacking them in a jenga-style way will ensure a longer lasting fire. Also, add wood chips to the top of your stack of wood and around the bottom.

Lighting Your Fire

Before lighting the fire, check to see that your stove is set to allow the maximum amount of air into its box. You want oxygen to enter because flames are attracted to it. Light the newspaper that you had put in the stove and leave the door to the stove open for about 5 minutes or less while everything settles. Closing the door too quickly after lighting might make the fire blow out. Do the same with a wood burning insert, and make sure the flue is open while allowing the fire to rise. Leave the screen or doors on your insert open for a little while before completely shutting it.

Contact Us

New England Hearth & Home can help you out with all your fireplace and stove needs. Give us a call at 781-562-0771 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!