our house (new-ish build) has a proper chimney (certed for solid fuel) and a really naff gas fireplace. A couple of houses on the street have swapped the fireplaces for wood-burning stoves, which are rather nice (we used to have an open fire in our old house which was lovely), but a bit of a faff and messy. We have no sources of cheap wood.
One option instead of a wood burning stove appears to be a gas burning stove, which I guess in theory is just a gas fire with 3 sides instead of 1. I haven't seen one in real life, but wondering if they're much close to the effect of a wood-burning stove than a gas fire is to a real fire? I guess with a stove, you're expecting a glass screen to be there so it doesn't feel so removed?
There's a bunch of videos of them online, but I can't get a feel from that as to what they're like when you're on the sofa, so figured I'd ask..
this kinda thing
I fitted one in our last house, this one:
https://www.snhtradecentre.co.uk/product/portway-1-gas-stove-with-logs/
Absolutely brilliant. Like a woodburner, but with no mess, no faff, no wood to stock. Instant on.
I have one thats fake coal. Suorisingly realistic but nothing like the heat output of the real thing and inefficient
efficiency isn't a massive concern - taking the above stove as an example, 4.2kw at 76% efficiency means I'd be wasting at most (compared to 100% efficiency) 1kw of gas - or 10p per hour that it's run (which is going to be a couple of hours per night for a few nights per week over the winter).
Interesting to know the heat output is low - is that for a given rating or just low-ish in general? Our current fire doesn't give you the blast that a fire can be whilst going full-pelt
We had a gazco vogue log one put in (recommended by local fitters and seems ok and the mrs liked how it looks….. )
Generally agree with TJ (!), looks good, not as warm as a real fire, not sure about efficiency I think ours was 84% - no idea how that compares to the best, we got ours as the existing very high quality, working perfectly coal effect fire was in a massive Cotswold stone surround that the mrs hated with a vengeance and even I found distasteful, fire is in middle of house so pita if a real fire (and I don’t like painting white ceilings), ultimately it warms the room(both heat and ‘ambience’), looks good and has a remote control (*requires pilot to be on), is warm enough that we always end up turning it down as the room warms and requires no maintenance (*in comparison to a real fire/log burner).
Edit - ours is sort of radiant metal heat that takes a while to activate, but from (*potentially flawed) memory it’s certainly not as hot as a real fire going properly and I don’t think it’s as directly hot as the old style gas fires with the three white grill/blocks (which I want allowed to have)but as I say we always end up turning it down.
Wasn’t allowed
We have a Gazco balanced flue think that looks like a modern wood burner. It looks the part, but the heat output is poor. After 15 years with a wood burner (in the previous house), I appreciate the lack of mess and not having to process my own firewood though.
Not as hot= the top gets to a much lower temp than a wood or coal burner. So much so you need a different sort of stove top fan.
I do not believe the supposed efficiency ratings either.
Have a look at Morso stoves, have the gas squirrel model all cast iron . After it heats up the cast iron turn it down to a low setting.
Back in the early 90s we had a gas fire in our living room, which was probably one of what you currently have. It was however extremely effective, because the hot fake logs inside radiated loads of heat, but there was a heat exchanger round the back and a big convection vent at the top from which hot air poured. They are just known as gas fires rather than stoves. Modern versions are available.
