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Should You Remodel To Make Your Wood Burning Fireplace Gas?
Fri 27 Apr 2007 - 14:58
Should You Remodel To Make Your Wood Burning Fireplace Gas?
By Dan Calderwood
If you have a wood burning stove, you may consider remodeling the wood burning stove into a gas stove. As technology has advanced, gas fireplaces have become more prevalent and have many advantages over the wood burning fireplace. However, you will have to decide if the advantages of gas outweigh the advantages of wood burning to justify the expense of remodeling your fireplace.
You most likely have a central heating system even if you do have a fireplace. Modern homes do not need fireplaces to depend on heat during the cold months. However, many people still enjoy a fireplace in their home. You will want to understand the different types of fireplaces before deciding to renovate or change your existing fireplace.
The wood fireplace has is not as common as it once was. Wood is not as readily available either. If you have seen prices of wood at a grocery store, you may have thought of the term `burning money.' You can find wood cheaper if you look, but you will most likely have to purchase in bulk and store it at your house and if you live in a townhouse or condo, this may not be convenient.
Additionally, some places have limits on when you can and can't burn your wood in the fireplace. Air pollution is monitored very carefully in some cities and they don't want wood burned if the pollution is beyond a certain limit.
For these reasons and others, you may want to consider changing your fireplace from wood burning to gas burning. Natural gas fireplaces are much cleaner sources of heat than wood burning. The natural gas is already connected to your home so it could be fairly inexpensive to run a gas line to your fireplace area for the renovation. Additionally, you will not have to deal with the acquisition and storage of wood.
However, gas can get fairly expensive as an alternative fuel source. During the winter months when you want to use your fireplace and other people are heating their homes, the demand for natural gas increases. As the demand increases so does costs. Hence, the logistics of dealing with gas is much simpler than wood, but it can also be much more expensive too.
You may view a gas fireplace as safer too. A traditional wood burning fireplace has a fire that pops and throws sparks. Additionally, you normally have to let the fire burn until it uses up all of the fuel. With a gas fireplace, you can turn it on and off with a switch and it isn't spitting sparks out onto the carpet as a fire hazard.
Some of the first gas fireplaces looked more like a BBQ grill than a fireplace. However, today's gas fireplaces can be controlled with remote control and adjusted to look like crackling orange and yellow flames. The artificial logs often resemble natural split logs, complete with a satisfying glow of embers.
Lastly, wood fireplaces require a consistent maintenance to keep them in safe operating order. Gas fireplaces do not require nearly as much maintenance. Hence, gas fireplaces would be most useful for those who are not comfortable with maintenance or do not have the capacity to store excess wood on their property. Families with small children may also benefit from the instant on/instant off options offered by gas fireplace systems.
In summary, gas fireplaces are becoming more and more popular. You may want to change your wood burning fireplace to a gas fireplace. Some reasons you should consider is that gas burns cleaner, you don't have to deal with wood logistics and in some ways the gas fireplace is much safer.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Calderwood
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