What Is The Difference Between A Gas Log Fireplace And A Wood Burning Fireplace?
Posted on
November 24th, 2009
by Jerry
I am looking at homes to buy and I want a fireplace. I am not familiar with a gas log fireplace but fairly familiar with a wood burning fireplace. What is the difference between the two different fireplaces? Also, what are the advantages and disadvantages between the two? I don’t have tons of money to pay on gas logs. Are they expensive? How do they work?
Thanks in advance for anything you can share with me about fireplaces and helping me make a very important and potentially costly decision.
I have experience with wood burning stoves, wood burning fireplaces and gas log fireplaces. You can’t beat the heat that comes from a wood burning stove. But the maintenance is a pain. The next best is the gas log fireplace. They are more efficient than a wood burning fireplace and generate more heat. There is no maintenance, other than replacing the “embers”, which I haven’t had to do, yet. The wood burning fireplace is dirty, pulls heat out of the house right up the chimney and is downright dangerous, as far as I’m concerned.
Good luck.
With a wood burning fireplace, you will burn real wood. A gas fireplace needs a gas hook-up and then all you do is flip the button or remote and you have fire. The gas logs are permanent. I find wood burning fireplaces to be a huge hassle. You need to buy wood to burn, learn how to start a fire and properly extinguish a fire You need to clean out the ashes often and do proper maintenance on the chimney so it doesn’t have a creosote build-up which is dangerous. With gas, no maintenance or additional costs. We burn ours nightly with no dent in our gas bill.
A gas fireplace is just that, they may call it “gas logs”. It’s just a fireplace that runs off of gas, it doesn’t actually burn anything. The advantage of a gas fireplace is that since it doesn’t burn anything-there are no fumes, or smoke. You do have to pay for the gas though, its just like turning on a stove top.
Depending on usage, a gas fueled fire place could cost more because of how it works, they work just like a gas stove.
A gas log fireplace is when you have fake logs that are hooked up to a gas jet. You just flip a switch and the logs light up. It looks like a wood fire but it’s not. It gives off heat and there is very little mess. You gas bill can be expensive if you use them alot.
gas logs are fake logs that dont burn, just the gas that burns and flickers around them. you dont have to buy new logs. it is just a fake fire place with natural gas flame, like the burner on your gas stove.
I guess its just the word gas
)
Gas logs ??? Errrrrrrrrrrrrr…………..*BURP*
Gas log fireplaces have “fake” logs which absorb/radiate heat and glow, simulating wood logs. They burn natural gas which is piped into the fireplace. The advantages are that they’re cleaner; no ashes to clean-up, no bringing logs into the house, no woodpile storage outside, no stray embers burning holes in your carpet or wood floors. They’re easier to light; just turn on the gas valve and ignite it.
Gas log fireplaces obviously don’t have the aroma and crackling sound some people enjoy with a wood-burning fire.
When burning a natural gas log fireplace, there is a continuous flow of gas feeding the fire, which raises your gas utility bill. Firewood is expensive too, though (especially if you buy it already split and aged and pay for delivery), so you have to weigh-out the cost of operating each type.
There are also gas-fired wood burning fireplaces, where the gas supply assists in getting the fire going by adding fuel to the flame until the wood is sufficiently burning, at which point the gas valve is turned off. These types of fireplaces can be easily converted to gas log fireplaces with the installation of the log kit (a couple hundred bucks).