How Does a Ventless Gas Fireplace Work?

Everyone looks to have a fireplace as one of their desired amenities when they are searching for a new home. Unfortunately, there are many great homes out there that have all the other things necessary to cause home buyers to settle for the fact that they may lack a fireplace. Well, thanks to new technology, those homeowners can now easily install a ventless gas fireplace that will resemble the real thing closely enough that makes the fact there was not a fireplace when the home was purchased a non factor.

Ventless gas fireplaces consist of high efficiency burners and faux logs. These fake logs are manufactured to closely resemble the real thing. They are made of materials and painted so that at a glance they are hard to distinguish from real logs. But, of course, one of the advantages is that they are not real. With a fake set of logs, there is no need to purchase or cut wood, then split it and load it, haul it home and stack it, carry it in and struggle to light a fire. There is also no mess that has to cleaned up after hauling in the logs and no ashes that have to be removed from the firebox and disposed of. Most of these fireplaces operate using a remote control that turns the unit on and off which provides the ultimate convenience when a fire is desired.

The burners used in these high efficiency gas heaters produce a flame that burns much hotter than the burner in their vented counterparts. Since they burn hotter they produce results that provide almost total fuel combustion. This results in a reduction in the amount of carbon monoxide emissions and soot that is produced. Since there is less soot and carbon monoxide produced, there is no need to vent dangerous unburned gases to the outdoors, so no chimney or flue pipe is necessary. Thus, there is also less heat loss with no chimney so these ventless gas fireplaces heat more efficiently which results in a more even dispersal of the heat without constantly having to adjust the logs as you do in a wood burning fireplace. The burners of course are fueled entirely by natural or propane gas and require no electricity to operate. Therefore, they make an excellent emergency heat source in case of a power outage.

Another important feature in the operation of any non-vented gas appliance is an oxygen depletion sensor or ODS. These sensors are required on a modern ventless gas fireplace in order to shut the flow of gas off if the oxygen level near the bottom of the gas burners falls below unhealthy levels. Many of these appliances also have audible alarms and carbon monoxide detectors that provide additional levels of protection against the possibility of producing an oxygen deficient environment.

These fireplaces are becoming more and more popular and it is easy to see why. There is no messy wood to deal with, a remote control that provides for total operation and immediate ignition and shut off of the fire. They can be placed anywhere in any room as long as a gas line is accessible and provide more efficient heat than other types of portable heating devices.