Bioethanol fireplace

[paneer]

My kitchen-diner is always freezing in the winter. I would love a fire in there but there is no chimney.

Just read in a magazine about bioethanol fireplaces. Does anyone have any experience of them? Do they give off good heat? Cheap to run?

not keen. The amount of water vapour they give out is greater than the amount of alcohol they burn, and they release the fumes into the room (no chimney) so you have to leave a window open.

Have you considered an oil-filled radiator, or are you attracted by its ornamental value?

Is this a gel fire?

I do fancy something fancy.
Are there any attractive oil filled radiators out there.

I thought you could put in a wood burner without a chimney, you just need to have a pipe fitted that goes up and out.. Hopefully someone will know more!
Having just put better insulation under our floor and new double glazing in our kitchen this has made a massive difference - worth exploring this sort of thing too?

I wouldn't.
they are very dangerous without adequate ventilation (co2 poisonings) plus the cartrige (?) can only be replaced when the oven is completely cold or the ethanol explodes when you put it in.

We're thinking of a long ribbon one for our new build as a decorative feature that provides a little heat but not much. To test it out we bought a small one and I'm pretty impressed. Our small one burns for about 4 hours on 1l of fuel on full flame, so about £3 per fire. Not cheap but ok if you just want the odd bit of cosiness factor. It has a lovely real flame. It's definitely not in the same league as a woodburner but could hold it's own against a heater. You can't refuel it until it's cool, obviously. Ours was £99, so figured it was worth a punt to see plus we can move it around and take it outside etc.

I saw a bioethanol fire in a modern house I viewed in the summer. Complete waste of space IMHO. If I had bought that house, I'd have had to rip it out and replaster/paint the wall. It was decorative - would provide little heat. Also looked dangerous to me - there was no covering so I could just imagine my kids being unable to resist putting their fingers in!!