Choosing Between Gas and Wood Burning Fireplaces

A fireplace adds ambiance and value to your home. When someone imagines their dream house, the home typically includes a comfy home that keeps you and your family warm in the winter, either with a smoothly running heating unit or gathering around a cozy fire.

It’s hard to resist the allure of of a toasty fire, but how do you decide between a gas or wood burning fireplace? There are many factors to consider when deciding how to keep your home nice and toasty.

Aesthetics and Efficiency 

• Wood: A wood burning fireplace typically wins in the sensory category. You get the crackle. You get the pop. You get the opportunity to roast marshmallows indoors. Something you don’t get is an effective heating source. Wood fires typically receive up to a 15% efficiency rating, much lower than a furnace that has routine service performed. They do get very hot, but most of that heat disappears up the chimney. Wood burning fireplaces not only lose the heat coming from the fire, but it also pulls warm air from other parts of the home up and out the chimney.
  
  
• Gas: There have been many artistic advances in gas fireplaces. The flames have become more realistic and some versions offer diverse adjustments in height. The ceramic logs used in gas fireplaces now have the look of the real thing and come complete with glowing embers, which don’t demand you to wait while they go out. You can merely switch your gas fireplace on and off, providing you more control over your home’s temperature and frees you from having to keep an eye on your fire. The lack of fire stealing oxygen gives gas fireplaces a 75% to 99% efficiency rating. Picture the level of comfort you could have when you combine that with a fully serviced furnace. 

Air Quality and Maintenance

• Wood: Air quality is important to all homeowners. Burning wood produces air pollution in and outside your home and the smoky wood aroma that a wood burning fireplace gives off could be hazardous to your family’s. Wood also creates a byproduct called creosote that lines the coating of the chimney and must be removed by a professional chimney sweep. Much like furnaces that should have furnace service completed annually, gas fireplaces also require recurrent cleanings of soot and spent logs.
  
  
• Gas: Gas fireplaces only require a bit of dusting every now and then and are just about maintenance free. It is suggested that you get your gas fireplace cleaned and adjusted once a year by a specialist to keep it working both safely and smoothly.