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Our home has a wood fireplace with gas pipe to start the fire. The chimney was inspected and deemed unsafe. We’ve been considering having the chimney capped because of cold downdrafts even with the flue closed. Currently we have an infrared quartz space heater with built in thermostat to keep the living room slightly warmer in cold months when wife’s awake. She has multiple spinal problems and has had both knees replaced. Obviously she would not be able to move logs of wood if we repair the chimney. I work rotating shifts at the hospital so I can’t always be there to put wood in the fireplace for her. The other issue with wood is turning off the heat when not needed. We can awaken to cold temperatures and by afternoon our AC is running. A vent free gas log would be more efficient but most likely more expensive for conversion and more dangerous.
1. Have any of you converted a wood fireplace to a vented natural gas fireplace or personally know someone who has done this in their home?
2. Does it put out more, less, or about the same heat as with burning wood?
3. I’ve seen most use electric ignition and some even are remote controlled. Can you still use the natural gas logs if the electricity is out?
4. Since we already have a natural gas pipe inside the fireplace, do you have a price range for such a conversion?
There’s a local company that specializes in fireplaces and they advertise as giving free estimates. Considering calling them to see what are our options based upon our home fireplace and what’s available. One issue is there is no electrical outlet within 6 feet of the fireplace.
1) yes
2) ours puts out less heat than a wood fireplace. But it’s easier to use and cleaner. We just shut it off when we’re done.
3) we’ve had two ignition systems. The original one was remote controlled. It didn’t last long as the sensor was in the fireplace. When we had it replaced the tech said remotes don’t last long. He replaced it with a manual switch we just have to click on. It’s battery operated so, yes, the fireplace works even if the electricity doesn’t.
4) we’re currently waiting on parts to repair our gas fireplace. It’s been 20 years and things are reaching the end of their life. Given the age of the entire unit, the tech asked if we were interested in replacing the whole thing. The quote was $3k-$5k. Since we’re already replacing the main working parts, we declined. The parts and install for the repair will be about $1k. We live in the DC metro area and everything costs more here so these numbers may be higher than what you’ll find.
Good luck. We use our fireplace a lot so the $ is worth it to us.
1) yes
2) ours puts out less heat than a wood fireplace. But it’s easier to use and cleaner. We just shut it off when we’re done.
3) we’ve had two ignition systems. The original one was remote controlled. It didn’t last long as the sensor was in the fireplace. When we had it replaced the tech said remotes don’t last long. He replaced it with a manual switch we just have to click on. It’s battery operated so, yes, the fireplace works even if the electricity doesn’t.
4) we’re currently waiting on parts to repair our gas fireplace. It’s been 20 years and things are reaching the end of their life. Given the age of the entire unit, the tech asked if we were interested in replacing the whole thing. The quote was $3k-$5k. Since we’re already replacing the main working parts, we declined. The parts and install for the repair will be about $1k. We live in the DC metro area and everything costs more here so these numbers may be higher than what you’ll find.
Good luck. We use our fireplace a lot so the $ is worth it to us.
Even in winter we use that space heater a few days a week and sometimes to weeks without turning it on. Doesn’t sound like it’s worth the effort for us if it’s in that price range. May just seal off the chimney, put a decorative glass door over the front of the fireplace, and use the space heater in the winter as needed. Around March we put the space heater back in its box to put it away for the seasoned take it back out around late October or early November. To get ready for the season.
I can't answer most of your questions as ours was installed when we built the house.
To me it seems to put out more heat than our wood burning fireplace. That's probably because I keep the glass doors shut when we have a wood fire. At least with ours there is still residual heat after we shut off the gas fireplace. One can also purchase one with a fan to blow the heat out.
Ours uses a switch on an adjacent wall. We've never had the need to use it when the electric was out. There is probably a way to start it in that situation. I've never looked into it though.
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