I'm almost ashamed to even ask this.

That is so true.
One show the Mythbusters did, even proved it so.
And it lowered the others rooms by at least 2 degrees, and that was in CA. for pete's sake.

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I suppose it's a matter of semantics. I don't consider what you have as a traditional fireplace. In fact, we have one identical to what you have described....kinda of an airtight woodstove built into a fireplace facade. A common brand of these is the "Heatilator."

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I have never heard the term "Heatilator." Something new every day.

Heatilator Fireplaces

It's not a term, but a brand name. But almost everyone I know calls these energy-efficient woodburning appliances "heatilators" for lack of a better term. Kinda like how most people call duplicating "xeroxing."

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Gotcha. Thanks for the link. Similar but different. I don't see the convection vents on theirs. Some use gas and blowers. Ours doesn't. I'll post a photo sometime. Maybe someone can give me some brand specifics. It was here when we bought the house.

This is ours. It is the Opel Model made by RSF Industries. Heat can be moved by convection (without fans) or with fans. The duct work from the fireplace can be routed in serveral different ways too, including piped right into the home's existing furnace duct work system.

The original Heatilators used convection to circulate heat. They had openings below the firebox to allow cool air in and openings above the firebox to let the heated air out.

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my favorite firestarter is a toilet paper cobb stuffed with dryer lint and dried twigs lit off in a lincoln log stacked split kindling tinder chiminey built between the fire dogs and in front of the back log. Once the inside of the tinder chiminey is ember glowing, I stack the smaller front logs on the dogs. When the tinder chiminey collapses , the front logs are usually steadily dropping embers.

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first make sure your chimney is clean, then make sure you open the damper and warm the chimney before starting a roaring fire..or..you'll get smoke into your house.

if your fireplace has a cold air intake, make sure it is open to bring fresh air to the fire..otherwise you are using warm house air to burn the fire.

start with a good dry kindling and a little paper or firestarter and some smaller logs..when that is going well, put on larger logs, but don't smother the fire with them, or you'll get smoke.

keep an eye on the fire ...always... even experienced people should always keep an eye on the fire..

when ashes build up and smother the fire..they must be removed to allow air into the fire..your fire burns oxygen as well as wood

Take a large seasoned log (preferably the side with no bark), place it facing the front of the hearth. Put another log about six inches away, with the barkless side facing the first log. Crumple four or five sheets of newspaper and place them between the logs. Take some small kindling and "span" the two logs above the paper. Build a small heap of progressively larger pieces of kindling on these first pieces. (When I say "heap" it means 8-10 pieces, only...perhaps the diameter of your thumb.) Light the paper, you might need to poke around with a poker to keep things moving. You need to "feed" the flames with fuel and air. The two large logs should reflect heat, and help to keep it concentrated. You'll get the hang of it in no time...but don't ever use gasoline or lighter fluid, indoors. Once it gets going good, you can start putting small logs on top of the fire to keep it maintained. Good luck.

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Firestarters I have used:

1. Rich lighter pine - same stuff some folks call fatwood. Full of resin, lights easily. Three or four small pieces can usually get a fire going.

2. Corn cobs - take dry corn cobs, put them vertically in a closed container with about 2 inches of diesel fuel in the bottom of the container. Couple of cobs will do it to it.

3. Scrap lumber - every homebuidling jobsite has pine lumber scraps in the cut-off pile. Crews generally are glad for you to haul them off...keep the length to four inches minimum, about eight inches maximum, and split them into smaller pieces. Usually takes four or five pieces, sometimes helped along with a spritz of diesel fuel or charcoal starter.

4. Dryer lint and leftover candle wax - got that one from this site. Take cardboard egg cartons and stuff dryer lint in the cups. Pour in a bit of melted wax. Repeat until the cups are full. Cut into individual cups. Usually takes one or two.

5. Pine burrs - what we call pine cones. Long as they're dry, they're very good. Some people will soak the bottom ends in diesel.

6. Commercial firelogs - they're made from sawdust and wax, mostly. I have an old bread knife I use to saw them up. I keep the disks in a sealed tupperware bowl. Takes about two disks as thick as my finger.

And lots of other things...just remember, keep your tinder dry and it's easier to start small seasoned wood than green stuff. Also, never try to start a fire with less than three sticks of wood!

Birch bark! Two or three lengths of birch bark in place of the paper works well. You can light it w/ a match and it burns for a few minutes making sure the kindling lights...

Backpacking, I lit more than one fire in the rain using birch bark & dry wood we had kept under a plastic tarp...

You've received a lot of good help in this thread.
I only want to add...
"open the damper and warm the flue.."
here's how:

Build your fire, open the flue damper, twist up a long newspaper into a rigid twig, hold it up in the chimney as you light it to get the draft going up the chimney, then use it to start your tinder in your fire.

After a few starts, you will know how high you have to hold it up, because when you forget, the smoke from the tinder and kindling will billow out of the fireplace into the room until that draft starts drawing.
That first smoke is not always hot enough to start the draw fast enough.

There are three components in a fire; tinder, kindling, and fuel.
If you skimp on any of them, chances are you will have to relight/reset it.

Fumes from polyester and synthetic dryer lint can be toxic. I only use cotton clothes and towel lint.

Build your fire sort of loose, with airspace through it to catch stuff faster, then as it progresses, push your burning wood closer together to make it burn longer.
Throw a little twig in crosswise before you add a large log and the large log will have some air passing it to catch it faster, instead of the big log strangling the nice flames you just put it in.

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It's worth peeling green birch and saving the bark back. That oil in the bark burns HOT and strong, even smells a bit like some fuel oil has been added to the mix.

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Thanks for all the advice, and the fireplace has solid iron doors and so it is more of the "stove" type it also has an electric blower the previous owner used this as his only source of heat and said it did a great job. The house also has gas wall heaters and a central furnace so I have lots of options but wanted to go with the most cost effective approach and since I have an pretty much endless supply of newspapers and firewood I wanted to use the fireplace.

So it sounds like you have a "heatilator" type also. I have heard the newspaper logs give off a little more creosote but go for it. Just make sure you clean and inspect your chimney regularly. A fire can start inside and its not fun. It happened to my grandfather once, fire department had to tear out the wall around the chimney and made a MAJOR mess.

Ours is no where near this nice but I love the job it does.