speak to me of Gas Fireplaces -- Vent free or vented?

[NMDemDist2]

the old owners have a HUGE pellet stove in the most inconvenient place in the middle of a long wall in the living room. It's a good unit, but it's GOT TO GO! it will find a good home in DH's coffee roasting shop out back.

but I do want a fireplace that can keep us warm if the power goes out and a small corner unit would look nice.

so I have a space consideration to deal with it, I'd prefer it didn't take more than 24" only each wall out from the corner.

so vented? ventless? do you own one? do you know someone who does?

suggestions?

[Kingshakabobo]

1. Go with vented. My partner had a vent-less and the house smelled..

....like gas when he used it. Yuk.

If you get a vented unit, spend the extra time and money to get an enclosed unit with an intake from the outside for combustible air. Those units burn outside cold air and use it to heat the box. The inside warm air is blown around the back of the box back in to the living space. That's the most efficient way to do it.


That being said, I'd keep the pellet stove for efficiency. Stoves put out a ton of heat. I wish I had put a stove(pellet or wood) in my house instead of the fireplace. My vented wood-burning fireplace looks pertty and puts out nice heat if you sit right in front of it but it's not very efficient. I think it sends more heat up the chimney than it puts out.

[politicat]

2. Don't do it. Keep the pellet stove.

The fuel costs for a gas stove are going up and up and up. It cost us just shy of $1500 a month to heat my great-grandfather's house with propane the last winter he was alive, and that was using pretty much only the gas fireplace in the room he was in (a 14x20 room). We used electric space heaters in the other rooms. And the winter was mild.

Pellets are cheap and have remained cheap. If pellets do go up, you can replace 'em with #2 field corn for about $1.10 a bushel (55 pounds) and about the same efficiency.

Work around it, Shannon. You'll regret moving it. There's a ton of smaller furniture on the market, and adding an extension on to the living room is not all that expensive.

[NMDemDist2]

3. i can move the pellet stove to the corner, but they didn't add any

fireproof material behind it and I really doubt it's up to code as it sits right now. it's just sitting on it's base on carpet which can't be right!

adding an extension sounds great, can you define "not that expensive" ?? either way it has to be moved, the wall patched and fireproof material put on the wall by the stove (and probably UNDER it too)

gas better be cheap in Carlsbad since we're surrounded by wells :rofl:

[politicat]

4. Don't count on the gas being cheap...

We're on top of some of the largest gas, coal and oil reserves in the continental US, and have some of the highest prices in the country. Regulation is far more important than supply, we're finding. If the PUC doesn't keep the utilities in check in NM, you're screwed.

Pellets are funny in that they are very often 0 clearance. They have blowers and so as long as it's a well insulated combustion chamber, they CAN sit on carpet and not need fire-proofing in the walls. Check the model and give it a test run before you get rid of it. Supervise it, keep a fire extinguisher handy, and touch it. The ones that heat my favorite hardware store are baby-safe -- I've seen toddlers touch the outside of the stove below the blower and not be harmed.

Okay, as for the extension... depending on building ordinances in the area, you can add a 15 x 20 extension to a mobile for about $5K. You'll need to get estimates and be willing to do the finish work (flooring, wall coverings) yourself, and use good insulation, but a small addition is not terribly expensive. I was stunned when I went asking how much it would cost to add a room on to this place. (I want an exercise room. It ain't gonna happen because I'd lose what garden I have, but they're incredibly cheap.)

[NMDemDist2]

5. wow! that is cheap!

i may have to live with my bathroom for a while and get a bigger living room

:wow:

[Kolesar]

11. What about just a wood stove for heat?

With "sealed combustion" for the air intake?

We have been planning on putting a natural gas stove in our sun room (an addition that used to have an inadequate duct from the main furnace and an electric baseboard heater. We have only been using the room seasonally, but now it has a new floor and cabinets and want to use it "more often".

Is there some drawback like creosote or fire regulations & insurance premiums? thanks

[Warpy]

12. Yes, there is creosote

and serious wood heaters generally call the chimney sweep every two cords. That is the safest policy. I don't recommend those "chimney sweep logs" because they use SALT, something that is not good for metal stoves or pipes. You'll still need to get the pipe swept even if you burn those things.

Insurance companies are generally OK with a professionally installed stove that is up to code. There is a huge selection of stoves out there approved for trailers that allow much closer wall clearances than old 1970s models.

Fire regulations are also covered in the building codes for stove installation. They are not onerous. It does make sense to have a small fire extinguisher in the room with the stove. Mine's just around the corner in the kitchen, useful in both areas.

The store that sells you the stove will generally have a list of installers and will be able to give you a ballpark price on installation.

I've been a serious wood heater for 18 years of my adult life, first in New England and now in New Mexico. The herbal romance is long gone, although I do enjoy having a tempered glass door on the stove I have now, and it's nice to be able to cook on it in the coldest weather.

[Warpy]

6. If you want it to be something besides atmospheric, go with

vented. Hell, go with vented, anyway. Newer trailers are heavily insulated and well sealed and an unvented unit is just asking for trouble in terms of CO buildup within the trailer. It doesn't have to be a chimney vent, a simple metal unit on the exterior wall of the trailer will generally suffice for the cool temperature of gas fireplace exhaust.

Just be aware that most of them have electric ignition and may have a fail safe installed for power outages that would render them useless in such cases. Be sure you check very closely to make sure yours will work with manual ignition if the power goes out.

Also be aware that rural gas costs a big bundle, which is why they put the pellet stove in there to begin with. It's a completely different animal from city gas. Check out what their heating bills were like. You might find that some sort of solid fuel stove makes much better sense than a gas fireplace.

[NMDemDist2]

8. it's lower than Alberquerque and Phoenix according to all my research

The cost of living in the Carlsbad area consistently ranks among the lowest in the Southwest, West Coast
and nationally, according to the ACCRA Cost of Living Index. A recent survey showed Carlsbad?s overall
cost of living to be 93.5 percent of the national average and utility costs were 79.8 percent of the national
average.
Cost of living Index for Selected Cities
Carlsbad
93.7
Dallas
96.9
Phoenix
98.5

and they deliver the gas to a tank, it's not piped in

[Warpy]

9. Yes, but they sock it to you in delivery charges

so it's more expensive.

Other things contribute to a lower cost of living in that area, like lower real estate prices, lower property taxes, lower gasoline prices, lower health care costs and occasionally lower food costs (closer to Mexico!). Urban areas are always more expensive overall. However, the GAS is going to be more expensive.

I know folks all over the state who have been shocked when they've moved out to exurban areas and found out what their gas bills were.

Just be aware that this is true and that there is a reason for installing an expensive item like a pellet stove.

[NMDemDist2]

10. agreed! I notice they put in an electric water heater and dryer too

so I am getting the utility bills faxed to me today LOL

[wildeyed]

7. I have un-vented.

The interior of the chimney on my house is completely deteriorated and would cost big $$$ to fix. We just want the occasional fire in the evening, so the un-vented seemed fine. I don't notice any smell, and it really heats the place up. I would be concerned about using it as a primary heat source.

I don't think that a normal vented gas fire will provide much heat. I think those are more for show.

There was this thread a few months back. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=287&topic_id=1377

Sounded like a really efficient, home heating vented fire.