Abstract: Heating a room in a structure with a fireplace includes feeding combustible gas to a burner of a combustion assembly of the fireplace to create heat and flames with hot exhaust air passing out of a combustion chamber of the fireplace through an exhaust duct and into an exhaust air conduit of a secondary heat exchanger and out of the structure.

Abstract: Heating a room in a structure with a fireplace includes feeding combustible gas to a burner of a combustion assembly of the fireplace to create heat and flames with hot exhaust air passing out of a combustion chamber of the fireplace through an exhaust duct and into an exhaust air conduit of a secondary heat exchanger and out of the structure.

Abstract: A vent assembly includes a base, an intake duct, an exhaust duct, and a cap assembly. The base includes a vertically oriented, outward facing primary surface and defines a duct aperture that extends through the outward facing primary surface. The base includes a metallic material. The intake duct is coupled to the base within the duct aperture, and the exhaust duct is oriented coaxially within the intake duct. An end of the exhaust duct extends distally beyond an end of the intake duct. The cap assembly includes first, second, and third members, wherein at least one of the first, second and third members includes a non-metallic material. The first member includes an intake aperture aligned with the duct aperture of the base and is sized to substantially cover the outward facing primary surface. The second member includes an exhaust aperture sized to receive the exhaust duct.

Abstract: A monitoring and control system for use with a decorative heating appliance such as a fireplace, stove, or fireplace insert. The monitoring and control system includes a sensor module, a computer system, a controller, and a communication system. The sensor module is configured to monitor a burner, gas valve, and ignition system of the heating appliance and generate monitoring signals. The controller is configured to generate fault condition signals based on the monitoring signals. The communication system is configured to communicate the fault condition signals to the computer system, wherein the computer system is located remotely from a living space within which the heating appliance resides. The computer system is configured to generate control signals in response to predetermined fault condition signals and communicate those signals to the controller via the communication system for control of at least one of the burner, gas valve, and ignition system or other functions of the heating appliance.

Abstract: A method and system for simulating a living space capable of receiving a heating appliance. The method includes loading onto a computer system or a computer readable medium data representing at least a portion of the living space. The method further includes selecting from a data storage device or the computer readable medium data representing at least one heating appliance from a group of heating appliance simulations. The method also includes combining the data representing the at least one heating appliance with the data representing the at least a portion of the living space to generate data representing a simulated living space with the at least one heating appliance received therein.