Gas Fireplace
- Thread starter Maxie
- Start date
Uses wood for what???
If you're talking about it having a wood burning fireplace and you want to convert it to gas, if you already have a gas supply to the house, yes it is a worthwhile investment for a number of reasons:
1) Get a gas insert, it will keep the house warmer and be a hell of a lot more efficient than a wood burning fireplace. WHen you use a fireplace without an insert while it does warm up the one room, it makes the surrounding rooms cooler by drawing the warm air out of them and sends it up the chimney.
2) Depending on the area you live in, it will add to the value of the house. Right now, your wood burning fireplace is a liability, not a plus.
3) If you don't have a natural gas BBQ outside, and the fireplace is close to an exterior wall, while the guys are running the gas line to the fireplace, for a couple of dollars more you can have them run one outside then buy a natural gas fireplace. VERY cost effective and no more trips to the tank exchange and you never run out of fuel.
If you're talking about it having a wood burning fireplace and you want to convert it to gas, if you already have a gas supply to the house, yes it is a worthwhile investment for a number of reasons:
1) Get a gas insert, it will keep the house warmer and be a hell of a lot more efficient than a wood burning fireplace. WHen you use a fireplace without an insert while it does warm up the one room, it makes the surrounding rooms cooler by drawing the warm air out of them and sends it up the chimney.
2) Depending on the area you live in, it will add to the value of the house. Right now, your wood burning fireplace is a liability, not a plus.
3) If you don't have a natural gas BBQ outside, and the fireplace is close to an exterior wall, while the guys are running the gas line to the fireplace, for a couple of dollars more you can have them run one outside then buy a natural gas fireplace. VERY cost effective and no more trips to the tank exchange and you never run out of fuel.
Maxie said:
yep wood is a liability,but I would also check into oil fire places,they are efficiant also.
Maxie said:
Wood fireplaces are a liability because:
1) They waste SO much energy for simply asthetic appeal (and smell of burning wood)
2) Chimney fires are a major problem because most people don't clean them as often as they should
3) In today's society of "simple is better" who wants to shovel out ashes, and the associated mess, buy cords of wood, chop some for kindling, roll up balls of paper, etc etc when you can just push a button?
Stoo
Fellated Member
My gas insert even has a remote control. I don't even need to hoist my ass out of my chair to light a fire. If I could get a beer fridge that operated the same way somehow, my life would be complete!
The gas insert is a real money saver too. I pretty much have the furnace off when I'm in the living room....
The gas insert is a real money saver too. I pretty much have the furnace off when I'm in the living room....
Yes, wood fireplaces are incredibly inefficient creatures and waste a lot of money
Great link...
http://www.canren.gc.ca/prod_serv/index.asp?CaId=158&PgId=822
Great link...
http://www.canren.gc.ca/prod_serv/index.asp?CaId=158&PgId=822
Maxie said:
talk to your insurance company about the liability and extra charge for heating with wood.limited use cause it is wood,if it was gas or oil you would use it more.
Hammerstein
bored and sleepless again
I'll take wood over gas
Funny I personally never had a problem with wood heat wihile I was living in N.B my total heating bill for the 2 years I lived there was less than $400.00 As well one of my collegues still heats with wood and I know for a fact on the coldest day that I could be prancing around in my boxers at his home or in side his shop.
On that note as well why is it that radiant heating within basement floors seems to be a some what popular choice within the new home market since the water is heated by wood???
james t kirk said:
Funny I personally never had a problem with wood heat wihile I was living in N.B my total heating bill for the 2 years I lived there was less than $400.00 As well one of my collegues still heats with wood and I know for a fact on the coldest day that I could be prancing around in my boxers at his home or in side his shop.
On that note as well why is it that radiant heating within basement floors seems to be a some what popular choice within the new home market since the water is heated by wood???
goodtime
Travelaholic
Some insurance compang won't cover older downtown homes with wood fireplace. Too much of a fire risk, houses too close to each other.lickrolaine said:
Gas is convenient but Real wood is more romantic when someone else maintain it.
Heating, with wood as your fuel, and burning the stuff in an old-fashioned open fireplace are two very different things. The people who had no other choice—our ancestors—were constantly tinkering and inventing to get more heat into the house and less of it wafting away up the chimmney: the Rumford fireplace and the Franklin stove being the two most widely-known. That'd be why even the most primitive furnaces supplanted fireplaces years ago.
I love my wood-burning fireplace—wouldn't buy a home w/o one—but while it radiates heat to my front, if I don't crack a window for combustion air, the furnace backdrafts, and if I do, the rest of the house gets colder and colder. I gotta get a direct outside combustion air supply—someday. And I keep my eye on catalytic-converter developments; for all the pleasure of a whiff of woodsmoke on a fall walk, straight chimmnies are awful polluters, and they're illegal in more and more places. Which will mean those nasty glass doors. But nothing can beat—and no gas-fire will ever offer—the primitive satisfactions of poking and prodding and maintaining your own fire. I enjoy it while I can.
Another consideration on the gas front: venting. The appliance will need to burn air and get the CO and CO2 outside somehow. Or you suffocate. You may encounter salespeople telling you , "it's just like a gas stove", but the days of leaky old buildings when we let that stuff take care of itself are gone. Kitchen must be vented these days. Be safe.
I love my wood-burning fireplace—wouldn't buy a home w/o one—but while it radiates heat to my front, if I don't crack a window for combustion air, the furnace backdrafts, and if I do, the rest of the house gets colder and colder. I gotta get a direct outside combustion air supply—someday. And I keep my eye on catalytic-converter developments; for all the pleasure of a whiff of woodsmoke on a fall walk, straight chimmnies are awful polluters, and they're illegal in more and more places. Which will mean those nasty glass doors. But nothing can beat—and no gas-fire will ever offer—the primitive satisfactions of poking and prodding and maintaining your own fire. I enjoy it while I can.
Another consideration on the gas front: venting. The appliance will need to burn air and get the CO and CO2 outside somehow. Or you suffocate. You may encounter salespeople telling you , "it's just like a gas stove", but the days of leaky old buildings when we let that stuff take care of itself are gone. Kitchen must be vented these days. Be safe.
Hammerstein said:
Again, heating with wood isn't bad per se, it is the heating with wood in a fireplace which is innefficient. I also want to mention that should the original poster convert to gas, he still should install an insert else the heat will still be sucked up the chimney.
I think Hammerstein was using a wood burning stove which is an excellant way to heat a smaller home as the stove itself heats up and radiates the heat. I know many cottages that use only this method of heat and it works great.
As for radiant heated floors, what makes you say the water is heated with wood? That isn't true at all, the water is typically heated by a hot water heater or similar device which will run on electricity or natural gas.
Supposedly radiant heated floors can be used anywhere but I would be hesitant to use them under hardwood floors for fear of warping, shrinkage and other associated problems.
Hammerstein
bored and sleepless again
tboy said:
True when I was in N.B it was a smaller home but out here in Ontario my friend's place is 1700 square feet and yes they were both heated with wood stoves in the basements.
As for how I know how the water is heated in a radiant heat flooring system Hmmm little know fact I work in construction (could be gas or electricity is areas of a high population density, but sor far in the past 20 years that I have swung a hammer in one aspect or another in construction every radiant floor in the basement I have seen and/or poured has been heated by wood outside the home in a stove that is approximately 3' x5' x4' ) and the radiant heat tubes are placed within the concrete basement floor (since heat rises it is the most logical place) If i sound extremely sarcastic or something similiar my apoligies.
