I have a home with a zero clearence chiminey on the exterior of the house. I have a significant amount of heat loss/cold drafts in this room. I rarely use the fireplace at all; I live in New England though and am trying to brace for rising oil prices. What is the best and safest way to insulate the fireplace? The damper to the fire place is sealed and I have a cap on the chiminey. Any other alternatives to insulating the chase? What are my options?

You must be real carefull if you want to insulate the chase that the chimney is running through.
Depending on the type of chimney flue that was installed there are clearances that must be met for fire safety. Some are only a few inches away while others are six to 12 inches.

They do make styrofom baffles that can be placed in the damper area to seal off the chimney better. But if you have a good quality wood stove you should be able to seal it tight by simply closing the door and closing the fresh air intake into the fire box.

Based on what you have I guess The chimney is boxed in on three sides with siding with the fourth being the interior wall of the rooms on the upper levels. If that is the case there is really nothing you can do to improve what you have already done.

If you have a lot of cold drafts in the room, do you have a lot of glass? Insulated window treatments help.

You can purchase smoke sticks or pencils at local heating supply companies. Burn one and move it around the room to outlets, edges of windows, around the stove etc. If the drafts are caused by air infiltration the smoke will blow and move. Do this on a windy day to get the best response.
Feel around the walls during a cold evening. Are some exterior walls colder then others? Perhaps the wall insulation is poor or has gotten wet from a exterior water leak. Cold walls will cause a lot of drafts as the warm air in the room comes in contact with the cold walls. This causes the air to quickly cool down and flow causing the drafts your feeling.

Remember this however. Some air leakage is healthy. Weigh the cost of some energy savings against what it will cost to seal it up and what it will cost in unhealthy air that will build up in the house if no air infiltration occurs.

Thanks for the guidance; I managed to look at the chiminey pipe itself within my attic and realized that there is a 2 " clearence required from insulation/combustabile material. We do have an older sliding glass door in the room as well. I've done my best to seal off any major drafts from this area. I will let you know how the styrofoam baffle and "draft" test works out.

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Originally posted by runnin man:
I have a home with a zero clearence chiminey on the exterior of the house. I have a significant amount of heat loss/cold drafts in this room. I rarely use the fireplace at all; I live in New England though and am trying to brace for rising oil prices. What is the best and safest way to insulate the fireplace? The damper to the fire place is sealed and I have a cap on the chiminey. Any other alternatives to insulating the chase? What are my options?