Does anyone have a bio ethanol fire?

[octopusrus]

And if you do, does it heat your room? We can't use our flue so are looking at other options, but have heard that the bioethanol fires don't actually heat the room very well...

Would love to hear any views of them, good or bad!

(Also posted on Property but slow in there today!)

We've got a small one. We use it because it looks nice, not for heat. It probably does give off some heat, but definitely not enough to turn the heating off. It uses quite a lot of fuel so isn't cheap to use (we get the fuel from Amazon). I'd say you also wouldn't want it on for more than a few hours as it can make the room a bit stuffy I think (DH disagrees).

We have a small table-top bio-ethanol fire, not sure exactly of the capacity but when lit it lasts for about an hour and a quarter. We have it in our small sitting room which is about 3.5m x 3.5m. When we light it we usually close the door to heat the room, feels like it takes a little bit of time to get going but usually after about 20 minutes we have to open the door as it's too hot. We have just had an extension built and now have a 6.5m x 3.5m lounge, after being impressed with the small fire we are intending to put a larger one in the big lounge in a traditional fireplace.

I was considering one of those last year. But a decent sized one to give proper heat (we have tall ceilings in all our rooms - although our central heating is very efficient anyway). Never got around to it though. But interested to see what others say on this thread because my mind is, once again, turning to buying one this year!

We have a 1.3l biofuel fire in the living/kitchen/diner and it does a great job of heating the room albeit we also have a lot of candles on and throws for the sofa. We don’t have any other heat source and after about 20 mins of lighting it the room is warm.

Thanks all! Seems like it maybe depends on the size then whether they are any good at heating! I didn't think they were very expensive to run though so that's a bit concerning, thought it was similar to a normal gas fire?

I looked into bioethanol heaters last winter and realized that they’re not very efficient. I ended up buying a Zibrokamin kerosene heater which did the job in an open plan 50 square meter converted attic with inadequate roof insulation (student flat) where the water pipes froze for a week.
I’ll see if I can find a link. It doesn’t need a flue and you get a slight “candle” smell when you switch on and off. But it’s economical and easily transported on its little trolley. Hauling the fuel containers up 5 floors is not my problem, fortunately!
Off to find a link...

Sorry, it’s paraffin, not kerosene.
www.qlima.com/assortment/heating/paraffin-heaters/sre23c-2/

My plan last year, and it still is, was to use it as 'fire feature' (but definitely giving heat), but also as a back-up should our heating fail - or should we have a freezing Winter, in which case an extra heat source in the sitting room would be good.

The ones I've been looking at give between 1-3kW of heat (depending on how 'open' you have the burner). But haven't bought it yet, so can't help with the realities!