Do you use your fireplace?

[Ayrahb]

We never used the one in our condo and don't plan to. The darn thing is installed oddly and it just takes up space--I wish I could remove it.

[Ironhorse]

We have a wood burning one down in the family room, which is in a half-basement (4 level split). Use it quite often in the cold winter months, both for ambience and a little extra warmth down there. Plus my 5 y/o son likes to help.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

my parents put in an electric fireplace, and before everyone starts harping about how odd and horrible that ization is, I said the same thing.

However,

It does look nice to have in the living room, it adds the atmosphere of having a fireplace (the fire looks amazingly real) without the added heat if you're having company etc. It's there to enjoy rather than warmth. They use it all the time.

I've never had a "real" fireplace, ever. Would I use one, probably? Would I like one? Sure. But it's not a dealbreaker, and I'd probably want one in the basement for warmth and an electric one in a living room for show.

[Burninator]

We have a wood burning fire place with natural gas assistance. It hasn't been used it probably 10 years. It is honestly such a pain in the butt to use. You have to keep a close eye on it so the house doesn't burn down. It gets everything dirty. It just sucks all around really.

We are thinking of converting it to a full natural gas fireplace, the kind that is flip on my a switch and is behind glass, but the opening is arched not square. So it would have to be custom and there for expensive.

[Nufy]

I have a wood burning fireplace in my house.

I use it every winter at elast once a week.

Sometimes for ambience sometimes for heat...sometimes both.

I am halfway through cutting and splitting a cord of spruce I got for free so I for sure will be using it this winter.....

[troutman]

No one in my community ever seems to use their decks (and we all have a pretty nice view).

[Ice]

I use my fireplace every winter. Its gas but I choose to use wood in it. I don't like the hissing sound of gas and a wood fire seems warmer.

We live on our patio/deck from February - November. We cook every meal out there and eat out there, unless we get one of those very occasional rainy days.

[burn_baby_burn]

We use ours all the time in the winter. Especially when the weather first starts to turn cold in the late fall. It is a gas one. The place I lived at before had a wood one and we used it all the time. But it was an old house and we needed to use it to keep the house warm especailly on really cold winter nights.

[BlAcKNoVa]

I used mine (wood burning fireplace) quite a lot this week. Went out of town for a bit, came back and my electricity was cut LOL...had no electricity for 5 days. Other then that, I don't use it that often. I think I fired it up during fall/winter maybe half a dozen times.

[Vulcan]

I don't have a fireplace but I have a wood stove. I use it for heat sometimes but most of the people around here seem to keep their stoves burning 24/7. I enjoy lighting the fire, it's kind of an art and I can get quite rapt doing and watching the whole process. Sometimes I'll light the fire before watching a Flames game. Kind of a good luck thing.

[socalwingfan]

We have a wood burning fireplace, we use it probably 5 - 7 times a year to heat the condo

[DuffMan]

Use ours about 10 times in the winter.
I woke up one Sunday last winter and the house was about 8C. Was -20C outside. The motor on the furnace had died during the night. I was really happpy to have a fireplace that day.

[notoepik]

Wood, we use it about once a week in the Fall and the Spring.

My folks moved to Oklahoma last year and build a house. They insisted on a wood burning fireplace. Must be just for looks because there isn't a tree for 50 miles of them

[hah]

Great topic

Never used the wood burning fireplace in my old house in the 5 years we lived in it.

My present house has two wood burning fireplaces that we have so far not used since last fall.

[enthused]

We have two gas fireplaces, and one wood burning one. One of the gas ones is in the master bedroom, and doesn't get used very often, but the gas one in the living room gets used quite often, mostly cause its so easy to just flick on the switch. The wood burning one is in the dining room, and it rarely gets used... mostly cause we're never in there.

[Canada 02]

timely discussion as I am building a home, and in the process of looking for an appropriate fireplace for my floorplan.

Before I decided to build, a real estate agent showed me a 10-20 homes in my price range - all had at least one fireplace, some had 2 or more. Seems to be a fairly standard feature.

Having said that, not all fireplaces are the same. While every home I looked at had one, the simple ones were not very noticable, except for the checkmark next to it on the MLS checklist of features. The elaborate ones really stand out, and might be a selling point although, I suppose, no more than any special feature, like gourmet kitchen, steam shower or any other upgrade.

Back on topic, a wood burning fireplace is less expensive than a gas fireplace. However, once you add in the fire-rated duct work and insulation, the costs associated with a wood burner might push it over the cost of a gas fireplace. It really depends how elaborate you want to be and how much money you want to spend. If you have a cement cinderblock fireplace that starts in your basement, and is built all the way up to your roof, then this could run you in the 10's of thousands. If it's just a firebox with fireproof ducts and insulation, then it might run in the $1000-3000 range - about the same as gas.

You can then add cost by having a raised hearth and facade made of stone, brick, granite, marble etc., solid wood mantles, multi-side viewing. These are the features that stood out; the simpler ones had a basic tile footing and facade, a painted mantle surrounded by regular drywall.

If you want a wood burner, add a gas log lighter. It allows you to warm up your flue so you don't get a smokey downdraft, plus it does what it says it does - lights your logs. In addition, the log lighter give you the option to easily convert it to a gas fireplace with a gas insert, in case you or the next owner gets tired of building fires ot cleaning up the ash.

The choice between wood and gas will depend on what you want out of the fireplace. A wood fireplace gives you the ambience - the look, smell and crackle of burning logs. However, according to the fireplace installers I've talked to, they are really inefficient - most of the heat goes up the chimney - since it is burning oxygen, it will suck the (warm) air right out of your house. By comparison, a gas fireplace won't necessarily give you the same ambience. Certainly, the smell of burning wood and the crackle of the bark won't be there, although the ceramic logs nicely simulate the look of a real wood burner. The great benefit of gas, is that it is very efficient - you can get a lot of heat from it to warm your house, especially if it is equipped with a blower to distribute the heat.

I'm going with a wood burner in my home. I have every intention of using it. For me, I'm looking for the ambience of burning wood. I also like building the fires and tending to them - if I want to heat my house, I'll just turn up the thermostat.

[Daradon]

Even when I was a child/teen we used our wood burning all the time. And often it was me or my sister that would tend it.

I far prefer the appeal of a wood burning, but gave it up cause of green issues.

Maybe I'm just a pyro.

Gas, just not the same. It would get some use, but not as much.

I'd still like to have it there though. For the option.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Ice

I use my fireplace every winter. Its gas but I choose to use wood in it. I don't like the hissing sound of gas and a wood fire seems warmer.

Isn't that really dangerous? I don't think a gas firplace is designed to handle the amount of heat and smoke that a wood fire gives off.

[MacDougalbry]

Originally Posted by troutman

No one in my community ever seems to use their decks (and we all have a pretty nice view).

That's funny, I noticed the same thing here. I was so worried about privacy, I planted a load of Swedish Aspens, but it was a waste of time. The only person who ever invades our privacy is the lady accross the side street (we are on a corner lot) who insists on smoking on her front steps even though they have a deck. We, on the other hand, use our deck all the time.

As for fireplaces, we use our gas fireplace all the time, we got a blower on ours and it's a good way to warm up the main floor in the morning as we use a programmable thermostat and tend to keep the house cool most of the time. (Speaking of which, I think the most I spent this winter in a month on NG was only about $150.)

[CrzyCanuck]

Used ours maybe 3 times in 5 years. I also keep the pilot light off, all the time. Helping the enviroment, heh.