Do you prefer gas or wood-burning fireplaces?

[redstone]

Can't beat the cozy feel of a real wood fireplace, but gas is just so much easier. We converted our wood fireplace with a gas insert. (Why are a few fake logs and blower so darn expensive!?) Anyway, miss the wood, but gas with blower really is more efficient and will heat the entire lower floor in our small house.

[mommytotwo]

I like the ambience and the look of the fire with wood burning fireplaces, however, given the time to start a fire (and let it die out before going to bed) we rarely ever used the woodburning fireplace at our previous house.

We have a gas fireplace at our current house and use it frequently. It heats the room well and I like that I can easily turn it off and on. The only other drawback I see with it is that apparently the glass in front of it stays quite hot, even when only the pilot is used, so I always need to make sure the kids stay away from it.

[bcafe]

We have a wood fireplace and rarely use it because it does not warm up a room very well at all. We don't have an insert, but we do have a blower and for the $$ that that thing cost, well it was a waste. The fire did look nice when I was in the birthing pool though!

[lhafer]

I currently have gas. We used it on Christmas day, only because it's been so warm. Last year we used it a lot more. But it's rather expensive to run a gas fireplace, so keep that in mind if you are doing it for a heat source.

[tribe pride]

Wood. I grew up on a farm, and we heated our entire house with a fireplace and a wood burning stove (located in the basement). My dad spent a lot of time splitting and stacking wood during the summer, and then my sister and I were responsible for bringing the wood into the house and keeping our wood box full during the winter. As we got older, we were also responsible for starting fires and keeping them going after we got home from school, while my parents were still at work. A few years ago, my parents replaced the large stove in the fireplace with a cast iron stove placed inside their fireplace in their living room. It is incredibly efficient, uses far less wood than a regular fireplace, and does a good job heating the entire downstairs. The upstairs was always cold in the winter, but we never really hung out there except to sleep.

All that to say, I guess I prefer wood largely because of the nostalgia factor. I love the smell, the romance of hunkering down in front a real fire while snow flies outside, the fact that it was something I helped to create and sustain, and the timelessness of it. But, this is all I knew growing up. I had never seen a gas fireplace until I went away to college.

Yes, I hated all of the work involved while I was younger, but now I appreciate the opportunity it provided for my whole family to work together to keep ourselves warm all winter. And, can I say again, how much I LOVE the smell of woodsmoke?!

[wellyes]

We make wood fires all the time. I find building a fire very therapeutic. Plus, it seems to encourage the same kind of camaraderie as camping does. A fire turn on by a switch seems kind of pointless to me since it doesn't give you either of those things!

[maestramommy]

Wood. I grew up on a farm, and we heated our entire house with a fireplace and a wood burning stove (located in the basement). My dad spent a lot of time splitting and stacking wood during the summer, and then my sister and I were responsible for bringing the wood into the house and keeping our wood box full during the winter. As we got older, we were also responsible for starting fires and keeping them going after we got home from school, while my parents were still at work. A few years ago, my parents replaced the large stove in the fireplace with a cast iron stove placed inside their fireplace in their living room. It is incredibly efficient, uses far less wood than a regular fireplace, and does a good job heating the entire downstairs. The upstairs was always cold in the winter, but we never really hung out there except to sleep.

All that to say, I guess I prefer wood largely because of the nostalgia factor. I love the smell, the romance of hunkering down in front a real fire while snow flies outside, the fact that it was something I helped to create and sustain, and the timelessness of it. But, this is all I knew growing up. I had never seen a gas fireplace until I went away to college.

Yes, I hated all of the work involved while I was younger, but now I appreciate the opportunity it provided for my whole family to work together to keep ourselves warm all winter. And, can I say again, how much I LOVE the smell of woodsmoke?!

Love this. The only problem for us is that Dh has to spend an inordinate amount of time splitting wood, moving it from one side of the house to the other (the woodpile is on the driveway side, the woodstove is on the other), and it's just gotten to be too much on weekend when you have little kids. In addition we burned our way through almost 2 cords of wood in a very short time. So now we are trying Bio bricks. They are bricks made of sawdust. It's a lot less messy, though not very romantic.

Our stove doesn't heat the whole house, just the livingroom, and maybe the breakfast (dining) room when it gets very hot. But we achieved our goal of making the living room more inviting. Previously it was so chilly in the winter no one wanted to hang out there. Now we're in there a lot. But Dh did say had he known better he probably would've gotten a large free standing stove in the basement and connected it to the ductwork. THAT would've heated the house, and really offset our cost of oil. The insert we have was kind of expensive to buy and install. We would've never done it if it hadn't qualified for energy tax credits.