Most people nowadays opt to install a heating system in place that’s not only effective, but stylish as well. While you are thinking about remote-controlled heaters and such, other homeowners would prefer to use a more traditional way of providing heat inside the house – fireplaces.
Fireplaces have been around since time immemorial to bring heat and light to the people. By lighting up a few logs on the hearth, a fire is produced, ultimately warming up the entire household.
However, most experts think that a fireplace (peis) is more of an energy waster instead.
Depending on the type of fireplace you wish to install, there are definitely advantages and disadvantages that come with it.
- Electric fireplace
- Advantages:
- Adds more ambiance than heaters
- Easy to use
- Longer lifespans due to lesser corrosion
- No harmful fumes emitted
- Disadvantages:
- No power, no fire
- Increases electric bills
- Flames don’t look realistic
- Does not add value to the home as it’s not a permanent fixture
- Gas fireplace
- Advantages:
- Lesser maintenance – no after care needed
- Disadvantages:
- Need to put a separate gas line (propane) if you have a natural gas pipeline set up
- Propane tank need to be stored outside the house considering its size. Either you hire someone to hide it with landscaping or bury it to the ground
- Wood-burning fireplace
- Advantages:
- Produces genuine fire and crackling log sounds, as well as warmth
- Disadvantages:
- Inefficient to be used as a heating source as warm air flows up and out the chimney – including the warmth from other rooms of the house!
- As the heated air rises, the draft pulls the warm air from the other rooms, sucking along with it the oxygen
- Continue losing warm air as you need to open the damper for another 12 hours to prevent dying fire from depleting the oxygen in your home
- Woodsy smell produced gives birth to creosote, a harmful by product builds up on the chimney
- Solution:
- Use hard wood (hickory, ash, oak, hard maple) as fuel for more heat production
Use doors to close the fireplace off.