Have vent - no stove - Please help!

Here's the dumb question of the day. I am in a fairly new home. It is vented for a pellet stove. I don't have a stove, and rather than tell you my sad tale, suffice to say I will not be putting in a stove any time soon.

I have radiant heat floors, 14' ceilings in some areas, and was eaten alive by the cost of propane to heat the house last winter.

I am assuming that among other things, a good chunk of the heat is going straight out the vent. Right now it is covered with foil, and perhaps some newspaper at the base (inside the house)

What else can I do to seal the vent and keep more heat in the house?

Please help.

 

Have you had your boiler checked out to be sure all is up to par?

I know cost of LP has gone up and everyone is suffering with it.. If I were you I would look into putting a stove back in and help cut down on the cost of heating. I don't know what size you have there, but put in some fiberglass insulation and measure the pipe, and may be able to find a cap to put on it.

 

Thanks, I'll try the fiberglass insulation. I don't have the cash to put in a stove right now, perhaps in a couple of months. For now, however, I don't want to fire up the boiler and have my heat go out the vent.

It's a brand new boiler. Last winter I realized the zones were all marked incorrectly, and once I got that straight, I managed to make the last propane fill last about 6 weeks longer than the two previous.

The radiant system is called "taco", as I recall.

There are 6 zones in the house.

The house is 2300 +/- sq ft, and has 14" ceilings in the living / dining area. I do have ceiling fans, and will make sure they are going the right direction.

The one problem I had all last winter was that no matter what I tried the master bedroom was a constant 75 -80 degrees.

All I can figure is the heat goes through that room first, then is distributed throughout the house. Regardless, it was quite warm!

Thanks for your response.