Gas log fireplace vs. real (Charlotte: appointed, home builders, storage)

[MrsSteel]

jbognar, I think you missed the title of wtd's post: "In the North,"

[OmegaBaby]

Originally Posted by MrsSteel

jbognar, I think you missed the title of wtd's post: "In the North,"

Oops....my apologies wtd7575!

[bluedevilz]

One advantage to the gas fireplaces I haven't seen listed....

If you lose power, as we did a couple years back, for a few days you can "camp out" in the living room and stay reasonably warm with the fireplace going...

You could do the same with a wood burning fireplace, but a lot more work to keep it going through the night...

[gastric]

Excellent point.

[Anigirli]

Question, Now for those who do not mind the "work" associated with the real fireplace. Can the homeowner install or replace a gas fireplace with a masonry chimney? Generally do HOA's allow it? By the way some of the grand older homes in NC have the real ones.

[ChipL]

For the most part, a lot of them are fitted to go back from the onset, but you need to ask about the particular home. If it's a switchover you can do easily or not on that particular fireplace.
I've got the "real" fireplace. We run it all winter, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Yes, it's work, yes, it's messy at times, yes, there's a big pile of wood. But, nothing compares. It is home and it is cozy, and I don't find the same with the gas. We also fitted our real one with a vent, to blow more heat out into the room. Now, that's real cozy.

[tassy]

Our house had a gas fireplace... I grew up in a house with 4 real fireplaces...I got tired of the gas prices and the gas companies. We only had the gas tank for the gas logs, and because we didn't fill'er up more than once a year, they socked me with a tank rental fee of $75/yr. The gas price per gallon was more than my neighbor was paying, they use theirs for heat and gas logs, so it was explained to me that my price was a bit higher because I only used it for gas logs. I checked this with several companies and it seemed to be the same thing. The best thing was knowing if the power went out, and it has with these dern ice storms, that we had heat in the living room atleast. BUT... my in-laws did a great thing when they were tired of the gas companies also.. they bought a beautiful electric fireplace. I couldn't believe it when I saw it running, it does provide heat, can be run with the generator if the power goes out, and the flame/flicker are very random looking and totally adjustable. Throws heat, or not... it can just run for the ambience. It runs on a couple of chandelier lightbulbs and plugs into a regular outlet that my DH and FIL installed in the back of the fireplace. It costs me pennies to run without the heat, and didn't really notice much difference in the electric bill when we did run it with the heat.

I'm a much happier camper with the electric than the gas or real fireplace. I actually enjoy flipping it on and watching a movie at night with my bowl of popcorn....even in the middle of summer!

[VickiR]

When most of our homes here were built by custom builders, they all used real wood burning fireplaces with real brick.

Slowly, as the tract builders moved into the area, I remember Pulte as one of the first, you could still use wood but the outside of the chimney wasn't brick, it was siding.

Since about 1990, its the norm to not use the brick (which cost us back in 1990 about $2500 extra simply because I WANTED IT) but for the builders to use the gas fireplaces without anytype of chimney.

We converted our wood fireplace to gas about 7 years ago. We didn't use it due to the mess and cost of firewood.

Its just the way things change.

We used to build homes (inside the beltline is a good example) without garages simply because we didn't feel we needed them.

When the IBMers moved here in the 60s and 70s, they were used to garages and as the builders got wind of this, they began to build garages.

Things change. Sometimes good, sometimes not.

Vicki

[Desdemona123]

Originally Posted by tassy

We only had the gas tank for the gas logs, and because we didn't fill'er up more than once a year, they socked me with a tank rental fee of $75/yr.

Sounds like you had propane...not natural gas. If one already has natural gas running to the home, there are no tanks or tank rental fees.

[tassy]

Originally Posted by Desdemona123

Sounds like you had propane...not natural gas. If one already has natural gas running to the home, there are no tanks or tank rental fees.

You're right! It was propane, and I just got tired of the b.s. that came with dealing with the supplier.