You have no doubt admired gas fireplaces, whether in someone else’s home, at a hotel, or when you’ve seen them in TV shows and movies. They are absolutely lovely, and they make a space cozy and wholesome while still looking elegant and refined. A gas fireplace can give you the rustic atmosphere of a wood-burning fireplace, but it has additional advantages that make it even better.
What are those advantages? There are many, but here are three of the biggest ones.
Versatility
Do you already have a wood-burning fireplace that you’d like to convert to gas? Fantastic, that’s something many people choose to do. Do you have a chimney that’s not connected to a fireplace, perhaps for a woodstove? Great, that can be used for your gas fireplace. Do you have no chimney at all, because your house never used a wood-burning heat source? That’s also fine! Some types of gas fireplaces can be installed with their own ventilation systems, no chimney required.
Convenience
The ways in which a gas fireplace is more convenient than a wood-burning fireplace are almost too numerous to count. There’s no need to purchase, split, or stack wood, or haul it inside! There’s no wood mess of sawdust and bark bits! There’s no mess from ashes! There’s no need to spend time meticulously building a fire with newspaper and kindling, and no worry about trying to get it lit! There’s no fire still burning at inconvenient times—you can put it out with the flip of a switch! And there’s no need to worry about escaping sparks landing on your floor or furniture, either.
Efficiency
Wood fireplaces are drafty. They might be picturesque, but they are very inefficient. This means they’re not great at seriously warming your home, and it also means that they use an excessive amount of fuel compared to the warmth they do provide. Some estimates suggest an average cost of $350 of wood per winter for a wood-burning fireplace, but that depends on a lot of things: the type of wood, your location, whether you pay to have it delivered or pay even more to have someone stack it for you, and how much of the time your fireplace is being used. In contrast, considering the average amount that a gas fireplace is used and the low price of natural gas as a fuel, you might spend as little as $100 on fuel during the winter. This is great for your bank account balance, and it’s also better for the environment—not just because you’ll use less fuel, but because natural gas produces fewer emissions than burning wood.
If you’d like to learn about various models of gas fireplaces and how one could be integrated into your home, our team of experts in gas fireplace installation in Maplewood, NJ would love to hear from you.
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