If you were starting from scratch, what sort of fireplace would you have?

[PizzaPlanet]

I’m considering replacing our very old fireplace which currently comprises an open fire with timber surround. We live having an open fire but it has made the walls and ceilings a bit sooty and it’s a faff to clean out. Also it doesn’t produce much heat and we get through a lot of wood.
Can people give me their opinions about what would be the best alternative? I have seen some lovely limestone mantels but these are quite pricey. I also like wood burners but concerned they are just as much hassle to clean as open fires.
Quite like the look of some gas fires I have seen which are completely inset into the chimney breast but I’ve never had a gas fire so not sure how good these look or how cost effective they are to run. Please let me know what option you’d go for - house is large 1980s so would suit either modern or traditional. Thanks!

An open fire is eighty percent heat up the chimney, twenty percent into the room.

A wood burner is 80 percent heat into the room, and twenty percent up the chimney, and very easy to clean, you just empty the ash tray into a bag, wipe over the glass.

Having had both, an open fire and a wood burner I'd recommend the latter and I have mine on now.

non
if I had the chance I would have a super insulated house with an air exchanger that doesn't need any heating at all.

We have a multi fuel stove, much easier to clean that an open fire, we get decent ovoid coal and it burns almost completely out so hardly any ash to clear at all. One scuttle of coal and the odd stick Heats up our cold highland home brilliantly!

We had a woodburner fitted a couple of years ago, it was my Dhs dream to have one! We love it. If you get a multi fuel burner, it needs very little cleaning out, maybe once a month, if yo only burn wood. If you burn coal it needs emptying almost daily.
It belts out heat, some days we even have to open the front door we get so warm! You need to get good seasoned wood for it to be more efficient, we pay a couple of hundred a year from a local supplier.

Thank you! I don’t know anything about multi fuel stoves, do they just look like wood burners? Can you get ones where you use gas or is it other types of fuel? Also are they a lot more expensive than wood burners? Sorry for so many questions!

Please don't get a woodburner they are very bad for the environment/air quality.

We love love love our woodburner. It's hassle free, only needs emptying once or twice a month and gives out such a lovely intense heat. We use our heating (bulk LPG) for background and the fire as main heat.

They are massively improved in recent years for cleaner burning.

None (unhelpful, I know). If forced, one of those gas ones with a glass front panel and moving flames.

My street is blighted by smoke at the moment, whether from woodburners or open fires I don't know.

Multi fuel stove are woodburners that you can also burn coal in.
www.which.co.uk/reviews/wood-burning-stoves/article/buying-a-log-burner-or-multi-fuel-stove/stoves-and-pollution
This report discusses the efficiency of wood burning stoves. If you ensure the stove you buy meets the criteria, and you only use the correct fuel, then emissions are not as harmful as some people think. Gas boilers, gas cookers and jobs can emit just as many particulants as an efficient woodburner.

@greenelephantscarf 👍 this is exactly what we plan on doing, we are planning a new build at the moment but I do want a fire to have a focal point so we are going to install a gas double sided cassette stove

As a pp said, multi fuel is a wood burner, simply you can burn either coal or wood in them. The look is no different than one that just burns wood.

We have underfloor heating and built the fireplace from scratch in that room. We have a reclaimed wooden fire surround painted white. The fireplace is exposed hand made local bricks. We don’t use the woodburner much because we are very well insulated but we have our own woods so no expense other than harvesting it.

The key to cleaner air is having a clean flue!

As people have said above, I'm sure stricter regulations will come in soon on wood burners given the UK's air quality problems, so I would be careful about getting one.

The regulations coming in next year are already having an impact on the stoves being manufactured. Our stove, which is 2 years old, is extremely efficient, the particulate is lower than that produced by a condensing gas boiler as long as the wood we burn is well seasoned. When we have the flue swept, it is very clean, showing just how efficient the stove burn is. If you can see smoke coming out of the chimney, hen either you're burning cheap coal or wood that's been treated e.g. From pallets or mdf.

We have an open gas fire - similar to this (top picture). It was in the house when we moved in and I love it - you get the movement and light of an open flame, so it's relaxing and atmospheric to watch, but it's really clean. We recently stayed in a holiday home with an open wood fire and found it so messy and a bit of a pain to control - with the gas fire it's on and off at the flick of a switch. It kicks out a lot of heat and seems reasonable to run.

Oh I so wish I could do this in my current house, but managed in my other older houses which actually had chimneys! I really don't like new houses for no chimney or even a flue.
Open fires wastes an awful lot of heat energy.
Put a log/multi fuel burner in - far more heat efficient, you also have heat & very basic cooking facilities if you have a power cut.
(Disclaimer - I am wholly reliant on electricity where I am now so very aware of the risk of power cuts and my vulnerability so am looking for ways to mitigate where possible.)

greenelephantscarf* that's an ideal world, but in the real world, in a house build in 1990's ish with no central heating, gas supply or flue what would you suggest as an environmentally friendly heat source?

Agree, it's the much older stoves that there is concern about, the new ones and seasoned wood /smokeless fuel are a very different animal.

I've wanted a log burner for a long time but I'm just not comfortable with the recent reporting of pollution, even the super-efficient ones. It was all confirmed when I went to a showroom and was told the market for them will lessen so the shop was diversifying into other things.

The clock woodburner company now produce a gas one. It's more expensive at about 1.8k for the unit but much cleaner. Same look as the multi fuel burner they sell.

Legolamb- I really like the look of that fireplace you linked to, it’s got the features of an open fire that we love but sounds as though it’s got none of the negatives. I might look into pricing one of them up. Thanks