What's everyone doing about stoves and fireplaces now?

[CaptainPigeon]

I'm definitely overthinking this, but: I'm about to move into a house that has a naff-looking old gas fire in the living room that I want to replace.

Our previous house had a woodburner. I liked it - cosy, pretty - but it started giving me a headache, and then I learned more about how polluting they are and now I don't want to put a new one in our new house.

I've never seen an electric fire that looks convincing. Gas fires look better, but they're still burning fossil fuels and polluting, and with gas boilers on the way out soonish, is a gas fire doomed too?

I sort of liked this dinky little electric stove but it's effectively just having an oven in the middle of your living room: www.everhot.co.uk/Everhot-Electric-Stove.aspx

What's the answer? Is there an option that looks stylish and cosy and is eco-friendly and that isn't just... a hole in the wall?

Make the change to an electric stove because gas and wood burners are not good for the environment. Where does the electricity come from? Fossil fuelled power stations? Nuclear power stations? At least wood is renewable.
Same as electric cars, the electricity has to be generated somewhere.

I have an Everhot in the kitchen and a Multi fuel/ wood burner for central heating. Have heard lots of good reports of the mini Everhot. It has a shelf inside so you can bake bread or make a casserole.

I have a dimplex optimyst stove in a rental. It looks OK. I've also had a bioethanol one and it was expensive fuel and you can only add more when cool, so the fire did not last a whole evening.
I have wood burners where I am now and love them but the wood can add up and I am moving to a smoke free zone. I think I'll do gas where I'm moving too, though may check out if biofuel has improved since I had one.

I've read a couple of articles about this recently. My understanding is that burning wood is bad for the local air quality but, in terms of wider climate concerns, is carbon neutral and is less damaging to the climate than using other fossil fuels. Its also a renewable source, unlike gas, coal and oil.

I'm going to carry on burning wood on our open fire during Winter evenings rather than switching on the central heating.

@grumpyhetty no they're not. I can't remember the amount now (but Everhot can tell you) and it obviously depends on who provides your electricity. It costs slightly more for the first half an hour whilst it's coming up to temperature but then is very economical!

gas fires (even modern ones) seem to use as much gas as the boiler does to heat the entire house.

open fires are 20% efficient so you have to really hate the next generation to use one of those. A logburner is around 80%.

if there is an open fireplace and you aren't going to use it, put an old pillow in a binliner and stuff it up the chimney. (Or pay a lot of money for the same thing from Amazon). If you then decide to use the fireplace, remember to take the pillow out.

We never use the fireplaces so we have just got 2 cheap electric fires to plug the fireplace gaps up, we never use them though so no idea how naff the flames look

@comefromaway I think it was this or similar www.wickes.co.uk/Plastikote-Industrial-High-Heat-Aerosol-Spray---Black-400ml/p/134700

I love the colour of your wall!

I wanted a dark greenyblue but it turned out purely blue 😕

That's good advice NCkitchen to live with it for a bit and see if we end up relying on it for heat or not before making a decision.

Fuckingcrusty Electricity does come from fossil fuels but increasingly is generated via renewable sources instead (I just googled and 42% of the UK's electricity last year was from renewable sources) so looking to the longer term trends, it is a more sustainable answer.

A blank wall would lead to more flexibility with how to arrange the room, but this is all reminding me of that scene in Friends where Joey finds out that someone doesn't own a TV and says "but what's all your furniture pointed at?" I want something to point my furniture at! I do also have a TV

I wish woodburners weren't so polluting. They are so cosy and it's nice putting another log on

Thank you. I think I might try it.

I must have ordered every single shade of teal tester pot in existence to get a green toy blue and most of them turned out too blue. This one is Craig & Rose French Turquoise. There’s was also a Dulux one which was brighter called Inky Pool.

I do like that colour though. Dh is looking for something like that for his study when the kitchen is finally done.

Your blue colour I mean.

Just get a multi fuel stove and burn smokeless on it if you don’t want to burn wood, I’ve used it before and its good.

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

Ive got a dimplex one with the stream

Its actually very effective, its obviously not real but most people think it is when they first see it ( not when they’ve looked for a little while obviously)

We love it

We are thinking of getting one of those - can I ask, how do you hide the electricity cable when it's in the fireplace - is it just taped to the floor?

I've gone through the exact same thought process @CaptainPigeon and currently leaning towards just a traditional fireplace for decoration or very occasional use only. People with electric fires - do you do something to hide the cable?

@SpiceRat

We replaced old gas fire with this electric fire. It’s not 100% convincing but we’ve had a few compliments on it and I love it.

That's lovely SpiceRat, do you mind if I ask an approximate of how much it cost you? We literally have a hole on the wall since having an old back boiler removed but we're undecided on whether to go for a cast iron style fire or an electric wood-burner style fire with a wooden beam mantle. Unfortunately it will mainly come down to price!

Log burner. It's fab, my closest neighbour is quite distant and doesn't mind, I stack wood all year round rather than buy logs, and it saves me a lot on heating bills.

But I realise my location makes it easier.

Just to mix things up a bit, we have a subwoofer in our fireplace

Procrastatron Amazing, this is the kind of blue-sky thinking that we need in the world of fireplaces

Chesneys have some nice bioethanol options but they are expensive. Their heat output seems far better than others though.

I fancy a balanced flue gas stove. I don't fancy having a load of flammable liquid in the house and saw reports of burns from bioethanol fires.

TheOnlyKoiInAPondOfGoldfish

I'm about to replace the woodburner in my new place (I have asthma, even though I love them - not a good idea) I'm going for an Everhot. I've done my research and I think it will be perfect for me.”

Our son has asthma and my parents’ wood burner would set him off without fail.
We have a bio ethanol fire, no problems at all.

Trigger warning, re personal account of injury from bioethanol fire.

I used to think they were the holy grail for flames with no chimney but now I've been put right off :-(

Sigh. I’m following this with interest. I have wanted a wood burner my whole life and was about to put one in

I keep thing that Scottish people have had coal fires and wood burners for centuries and been fine...but equally the evidence isn’t great.

We have a living flame fire thing and I’m just going to tart up the fireplace for now

We used to have an old woodburner, and found it quite odorous at times. When we had a refurb, we went for a better quality inset stove and have never looked back. It's incredibly efficient, we hardly ever empty it as it leaves barely any ash behind and we've never had any smell or headache from using it.

It's like everything - you get what you pay for. Ours was around £3k with the granite surround and installation.