Is it safe to mount my new TV over my fireplace?

Is it safe to mount my new TV over my fireplace?

Jeff Colen (President, A Sharper Home, Inc.) gives expert video advice on: How far away from my TV should I sit?; Is it safe to mount my new TV over my fireplace?; What is the best way to position speakers in my home theater? and more...

Aesthetics aside, there really is nothing harmful about hanging your TV over the fireplace, as long as in the process of hanging it over the fireplace, you respect the insulation that is sitting around the flue. If you break into the flue, or if your installer breaks into that flue, you really have some serious problems on your hands. So that is something to be careful about when you're mounting a TV over a fireplace.One of the checks that we always do when we're mounting a TV over a fireplace is actually to do heat measurements at the bottom of the TV. And the reason for that is, there's always some heat that escapes from the fireplace when you have it on, and you want to make sure that the bottom of the TV doesn't get much above 110 to 115 degrees for extended periods of time. Most of the time, most modern fireplaces, it's not a problem. But on some older fireplaces, especially those that have no ledge sitting over the fireplace, it could create a problem and it's just something to consider when hanging it.