We've been on an annual budget plan for years where they bill you a fixed amount each month, and then we ante-up any overage in July and they issue an adjusted rate for the next year based on current cost. My monthly was $182/mo. but now it's $454/mo. effective July. Our boiler uses oil for both hot water and baseboard heat, and it's not like we can just rip it out and replace it with all-electric stuff without a huge outlay.
I'm really torqued over this. If you're a heating oil consumer, prepare yourself to take it in the rear.
You can get a decent insert for around $400 or so for a wood burning fireplace. However, if you can't afford that... look on YouTube.
Plenty of people built their own fireplace inserts. It's not hard. One made his from old trampoline frame tubing. If you have access to a junk yard, you can probably find old water pipe. A muffler shop can bend it for you if needed. It doesn't even need to be fancy.
You already probably have a cast iron grating in your fireplace. I actually prefer the fireplace inserts that just sit down near the coals or on the back fire bricks of the fireplace. (I don't like the u-shaped kind that is above the fire... makes it harder to load firewood). You can simply take your cast iron grating, and get three tubes (5' long each should do it). Bend them each in a U-shape and mount them to the bottom of the cast iron grating (simple metal hose clamps would work great for this, or use tie wire). Have both ends of the three tubes extend out of the fireplace by about 6" on each side.
You can get a good forced air fireplace blower for less than $100. Set it up, then make a small manifold to blow air into the three tubes on one side of the fireplace, and let the air come out on the other end. It works really well to make a discharge manifold to connect the pipe ends on the outlet side, but it's not absolutely necessary.
You aren't using the fireplace in the summertime anyway, so now is a great time to take out your fireplace grating, figure out how you want to set up your tubing and get a blower fan. Good weekend project for someone while you watch TV or sit in air conditioning. Plug in the blower, test it out a few times and make sure it works like you want.
When winter comes, try it out early and make sure it gives you the heat you want. Remember that it's all about surface area of the tubes exposed to the fireplace heat. You may find that 4 tubes gives you exactly what you want.
You can always buy professionally made units online, but if money is tight, it's really easy to build your own using simple parts, re-used (scrap) tubes that you bend yourself and mounted onto your existing cast iron fireplace grating.
I feel like this is a good idea but I am having trouble visualizing it. How are you not blowing smoke through/into your house? There is just something I am not seeing. Ive did a lot of redneck engineering but just cant see whats going on, even if I understand the primary principal.