Important Message About Fireplace Usage at Holly Glen
At the 2019 annual meeting, the owners voted to restrict usage of the fireplaces and no longer allow burning firewood or other combustible items. The reason is after more than one fire emanating from usage of a fireplace, the owners have determined it is too dangerous and not worth the risk.
As an alternative, owners and residents are allowed to use an electric fireplace insert. These are essentially fancy space heaters that look like logs or candles, and have lights to simulate the look of flames. They can be used with or without the heat function and plug into a standard electrical outlet. These inserts range in price, but many can be found for under $150, and can be found at retailers like Amazon, Home Depot, Wayfair, Overstock.com, etc. An examples of this type of insert is shown below.
If you choose to use one of these devices, the Association makes the following recommendations:
1) Make sure that the breaker box in your unit is not a Federal Pacific brand box. This brand of breakers had issues many years ago with functioning properly. We don’t think any Federal pacific boxes were installed at Holly Glen, but please check to make sure.
2) Never use a space heater (this style or otherwise) with an extension cord. This is very dangerous.
3) The outlets in your living room are likely to be on a circuit with most of the outlets in your living room. Be aware that when you are using an electric fireplace insert with the heat setting, it will draw a lot of power off that circuit. So if you have a lot of other items plugged in to outlets in the same room, and they are all running at the same time, it may cause the breaker to flip. If it does, just be sure to turn off other items plugged into those outlets and then flip the breaker back on.
4) If you have any questions, consult an electrician.
Residents found to be using the fireplace to burn items will be fined based on the fine structure outlined in our rules.
