Fire or not??

[Kittens4]

I've always wanted a fire in lounge.. but as I can't make up my mind need some help. Quite modern house.. love log burner but think electric easier. It's expensive so don't want to make wrong decision and regret later. Do you have log or electric pros cons please

[godricshollow]

Would you be subject to the air vent requirement with a log burner? So you may need to punch a hole in your wall?

[CannotEvenThink]

Fire. Always fire. Log burners are great and you can get to pretty big outputs before you need an additional vent. My old house had all the hot water and radiators heated by a solid fuel stove and it wasn't big enough to need a vent.
Obviously check out if you are in a smokeless zone etc before buying. Many stoves are clean burning and approved for smokeless zones.

[Fourmagpies]

We have a 1930s property so have chimneys and have used the back room one for real fires but it is so messy. We're in the middle of a building project and have moved everything out of that room and you can clearly see the smoke stains (though we have had a couple of issues of smoke coming back in to the room which might have made it worse). We're changing the front room in to the lounge and were thinking about getting a log burner but have decided to get an electric one instead. It's less messy, easyjet to turn on and off when we want a bit of extra hit and costs a lot less to be fitted. We don't need it to heat the whole house and it would be unlikely to do that anyway due to the layout.

[LouiseElla]

If you're worried about the environment, smoke etc you can always try one of the newer bioethanol-style fireplaces. Both those and electric fires are technically more eco-friendly i believe...I haven't tried an either but personally, i don't think they look nearly as good as the real thing. Chesney's always have some absolutely gorgeous fireplaces (depending on your budget). I got mine from there and it is such a statement piece in my home which guests always comment on - worth the investment!

[GinGeum]

We have a log burner and an open fire. Hardly ever light the open fire because the log burner heats the whole house - we haven’t put the heating on once since we had it installed! So it is a huge money saver for us, although we do get free wood so I’m not sure how much wood costs.

We had an electric fire in when we moved in, and it was so so expensive to run. We never switched it on!

[Floralnomad]

We’ve got a modernish house and have a gas stove , it looks really good .

[Billben]

We’ve got two log burners. One is a contemporary looking tall one with large front and side windows that would look lovely in a modern house as well. Contura the make is. Hardly ever use the central heating now as I can make the multi fuel burner in the kitchen to nicely tick over till the morning with coal.
If I moved into a house with an electric fire, that would be ripped out as soon as. Naff, hideous things. But each to their own, of course.

[ihatetosay]

i had an electric one that was supposed to look like a real flame fire but nothing beat the real thing - so get a woodburner and you wont regret it

[MonaChopsis]

I have a log burner, which is big enough to need a vent into the room. The vent really isn't a problem, it's behind a curtain and even when it's stormy outside I've never seen the curtain moving. It's amazing, transforms the feel of the house.

[brownelephant]

if you can get wood legally locally & you are not in london in a clean air zone, then woodburner.
if not then go for a pretty picture as feature on the wall & modern, clean, efficient heating system.

[drumandthebass]

Log burner all the way. We've got two and they make me very happy