Bio ethanol fireplace v electric?

[Maybenexttime08]

We are considering a bio ethanol fireplace.

Anybody have experience with these? Better than an electric?

I would like a real flame but can't have a woodburning stove at the moment.

Any experiences would be great!

an ethanol fire is an ornament, not a heater, because it makes quite a lot of water vapour, which you have to ventilate out, or it will cause condensation and damp. Having the window open probably means the room will be colder than if you didn't have it.

Somebody better at chemistry can work out how much water it makes per litre of fuel.

I don’t have experience but I did look into bio ethanol fires, from memory they were incredibly expensive to run - like £50 a time or something as the fuel costs so much - so you’d only do it occasionally. Things may have changed since but worth checking.

I used to have a bioethanol patio table heater and it have off very little heat. It was nice to look at but would have been completely unless to keep us warm.

Thanks everyone!

Just saw this post. I have a bio fire from Biofires and love it. The real flame made it much more attractive than an electric fire and it does throw out a lot of heat. We use it twice a week in winter. It uses two bottles of fuel per uses and so it is best used as a supplemental source of heat in addition to radiators. It’s also a lovely focal point when not in use.

Do you get much condensation Hodgewell1 ?

No I don’t @ ZaraCarmichaelshighheels.

However, I do have quite a big living room and only use the fire a couple of times a week in winter. I think it is a great supplemental source of heat but wouldn’t use the fire as a primary heat source.

I have one, about to replace it with another as we love it. Fuel isn’t that expensive and if you use ceramic wool a little fuel goes a long way. Mine gets my large lounge toasty and I love the real flame. Buying fuel on eBay from a legitimate specialist company in bulk saves us a fortune. No damp or vapour issues but my windows are new and vented so it may be different if you have an older or different sort of windows.