A Vent Free Gas Fireplace is a Great Alternative Heat Source

No matter what the occasion may be, there is no other place that the people at a family event seem to gravitate to then the fireplace.  But not all people have the luxury of having a fireplace in their home.  While most modern built or even century old homes have fireplaces as the focal point of many rooms, lots of homes built during the middle of the last century do not.  However, thanks to modern technology, a vent free gas fireplace can be installed without having to bust out a wall or install a flue through the roof.  With these limitations removed, a fireplace can be installed most anywhere in the home that is accessible to a gas line.

While a vent free gas fireplace is not meant to be used as the primary heat source for a building, they do make great supplemental heat sources for rooms that may be difficult to heat or for just adding to the beauty of any room.  Since there is no flue, there is no heat going up the chimney and being wasted.  In addition to these benefits, this type appliance is also much cheaper to operate than say an electric space heater or one that burns kerosene.

The first thing people tend to question when you speak of a fireplace being vent free is what about the toxic gases produced by a free burning flame.  A vent free gas fireplace has a high efficiency burner that burns with a much hotter flame, thus consuming all the usual products of combustion before they are emitted out in to the room.  These units are required to have an oxygen depletion sensor installed to detect a lack of oxygen near the burner that will shut the burner off if the proper mix of air and fuel is not maintained.

With proper installation and maintenance, a vent free gas fireplace can be a good alternative to the traditional fireplace.  And, with the many styles and sizes available, you are sure to find one that works well for your situation and also compliments the decor of any room.

A Ventless Heater Can Be a Great Supplemental Heat Source

There are many ways to provide supplemental heat to those cooler rooms in a home.  You can use a fireplace if it happens to be in the room where the extra heat is needed.  An electric space heater is an option if your space is relatively small or if you need something that will provide a greater amount of heat, you could use a kerosene heater.  Each of these options are useful in certain situations, but one option that can be adapted to work in almost any situation is a gas fueled ventless heater.

A ventless heater can be turned on for just a few minutes to take the chill off in a room, or can be set on low to provide a steady flow of heat.  Where a kerosene heater needs a steady circulation of air for ventilation, vent free heaters can be burned without a vent as long as the heater can draw air from other rooms of your home.  Otherwise, do not place the heater in a confined space that is shut off from other parts of the house.  If the heater does not have proper air circulation, carbon monoxide can build up and could result in death with prolonged exposure.

The modern versions of these vent-free heaters do come equipped with an ODS (oxygen depletion sensor) device that is designed to shut the unit off if the oxygen level near the burner drops below the proper levels.  However, if you are using any type of gas burning device in your home it would be in your best interest to acquire and maintain a carbon monoxide detector for an additional safeguard.

You should also keep in mind that these devices are meant to be utilized as supplemental heat.  While they can be used as a short term primary heat source in the event of a power outage or some other emergency, they should be shut off for a while every 5-6 hours to insure the prevention of a build up of carbon monoxide or excessive moisture.

Ventless heaters come in a variety of sizes and you should have no trouble locating one that will serve your needs no matter what size room you need to heat.  By following a few well publicized safety precautions and having the unit installed and maintained by a qualified professional, your ventless heater should provide you with many years of safe and efficient operation and most of all, keep you warm and toasty regardless of how cold a punch Mother Nature chooses to deliver.

Gas Logs - A Convenient Alternative to Wood

I was never very impressed with the thought of having gas logs in my fireplace.  I always felt like they looked exactly like a bunch of fake logs that flickered and glowed and gave the appearance of, well, a fake fire.  If you want the appearance of real wood burning in your fireplace then put real logs in the firebox and light 'em up.  If you want a gas heater in place of your fireplace, then by all means, install a gas heater.  Why try to make it look like logs burning.  Well, as with so many other things in my life, my wife had a different take on the subject and as is so often the case, my theory proved to be wrong in her eyes and we now have a beautiful set of gas logs in our fireplace.

After having a gas line run to our fireplace and spending a couple of hours unpacking and installing our new gas logs, I must admit they look more realistic than I would have imagined.  Not like the real thing, mind you, but close enough to pass for real with a fleeting glance.  This is my first experience with this modern convenience and I now will confess to the fact that they are growing on me.  I have always been around and used wood burning fireplaces and was always mostly satisfied with the result of a rip-roaring fire.  While I would not put this gas fireplace I now use quite in the same category as a real fire when it comes to producing heat, it does emit enough heat for you to stand in front of and warm up on a chilly day.

I still miss a real fire sometimes.  I kind of liked the slight smell of smoke and burning wood that always seemed to be so welcoming when arriving home on a cold winter evening.  I also enjoyed stirring the coals with a poker to get the logs free burning again and still miss the crackling and popping of a real fire.  No matter how realistic those gas logs may appear to be, they can never replace the nice feeling that always appealed to my senses of smell and hearing.

However, there are several things I do enjoy about my gas logs.  It is nice to walk over and turn the dial and have the fire instantly lit.  Not quite the same satisfying feeling I used to get with starting a real fire, but definitely convenient.  No more cutting, splitting, stacking and hauling wood.  Wow, that part I definitely do not miss.  I will confess that I have mostly purchased my wood in recent years so it wasn't quite as much work as I made it sound, even though I was still stacking and carrying it into the house.  There is also no mess from traipsing through the house with a pile of wood in my arms and no more cleaning ashes from the fireplace.  After it is all said and done, the gas logs in my fireplace are nice, but, to be perfectly honest, they are not as enjoyable as a real live honest to goodness rip-roaring wood burning fire.

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.