Fireplaces? Which type is better for the enviornment?

Question

Gas logs? Wood? Electric? and why?

Answer 1

Depends on where you get your gas, wood or electricity from.   I cut down deadfalls out my back door for wood for the winter.   Its better than electricity which is created by burining coal in my area, or gas, which is imported from who knows where.

Answer 2

spiral radient heat stoves ,like the ones they use in russia and northern europe

they only burn branches and heat is radiated out

it does not heat the air,it heats objects

such as bodies or furniture

they are very economic ,using only branches and no need to cut down trees

the heat does not leave everytime someone opens the door

And the fire is very contained and low so there is a minimum of smoke

Answer 3

I believe the gas log if it is the "Ventless" type. All of the energy is converted into useful heat.

A wood Fireplace sends 80-90 % of the heat up the chimney. An electric power plant normally will only convert about 30-35% of the energy in the fuel to electric power, then there is also some loss in transmission from the plant to your house.

Answer 4

properly configured gas heating system, in conjunction with solar heating panels, currently produce least emmissions - but gas is a finite resource and a net source of Co2.

Wood fired stoves generally burn at to low a temperature so release a lot of nasty compounds - think cigarette. However, new bio-fuel boilers using dry pelleted or sawdust feed are very clean, Co2 neutral, and, if from coppiced managed woodland, very susytainable; as well as providing an income for managing the land suitable for wildlife, and slowing water runoff etc.

electric is best used as a heat pump. but it is a "high-grade" energy source so it is a shame to waste it on heating. It also depends on the source of the electric.

Answer 5

The real problem is the fireplace.  Fireplaces are incredibly inefficient.  Although they make feel warm right up close, they do this by sending a great deal of heat right up the chimney, making other corners of the house cold, and forcing the furnace to work extra hard to heat the great outdoors.  If you want to have a fireplace for romantic reasons, use an electric one, preferably with fake LED flames.

If you actually want heat, get a woodstove or fireplace insert.  Stove/insert technology allows for much more efficient heat transfer, so that you can get heat gains for your effort.  What should you burn in your stove/insert?  Electricity would be out of the question, since it is a terribly inefficient way to generate heat. Gas stoves are more efficient than heating with electricity, but are much more expensive than wood.  If you have an EPA approved woodstove/insert, then emissions from wood are not much more than from gas, and the fuel is much cheaper.  Plus, wood fuel is considered by many experts to be carbon neutral since it comes from trees, a carbon sink, and using it creates demand for growing more trees.

Answer 6

Electric.    

All the others require you BURN something.   Electric fire places could be running on a renewable resource such as wind power or hydroelectric power.

All the others require some sort of venting,  so you lose some of the heat out the vent or up the chimney.   An electric fireplace can be totally unvented,  even fake.  All the heat you generate stays in the house.  

All the others can cause fires outside the fire box.   Gas can leak,  wood can roll out.   Electricity stays put.  

All the others are local fires.   Electricity, if produced by burning something,  can be produced at a power plant in a more efficient manner.   There is efficiency in mass production.  

Lastly,  when they have a ban on burning due to poor air quality  you can still use your electric fireplace.   The gas and wood fireplaces are illegal at that time and can get you a whooper of a fine.

Answer 7

gas logs cause fumes to go into the air wood is also bad they had to make some type of fume to use the electric

Answer 8

Gas, coal or electric will be using fossil fuels (or nuclear etc), and although the fire itself may produce little or no pollution they are all dumping CO2 into the air (even nuclear does this, because of the resources needed to build them, mine the fuel and deal with the waste afterwards).

Wood also produces CO2 (as well as some other pollutants) -- however, this carbon has been fixed by the tree from the air, so it is renewable.

The question then is, whether the timber was from a sustainable source.

If it's from a woodland which has been cleared, and replaced with grassland, buildings or whatever, then that is carbon which used to be safely tied up in the woodland, and is now in the air -- it's additional CO2, and so not sustainable.  If it's a primary (ancient) wood, that's destroyed an important natural habitat too.

However, if it's from a wood managed to produce timber, for example by sustainable logging or coppicing, then that's an efficient and acceptable biomass harvesting technique.  Better than using good farmland.  Woodland is not the trees themselves, but the land-use -- trees will always grow again if the woodland is still kept as woodland.  In many woods (such as most UK ones), management from harvesting is necessary to maintain the wildlife.

If you do burn wood, do it the most efficient way you can.  An open fire loses heat badly, as it pulls much more air up the chimney than the fire needs, dragging cool air into the room all the time.  On the other hand a closed stove can be adjusted to pull only enough air to keep the fire going, and so is very much more efficient.  More heat, less smoky pollutants, and the fuel last longer.

Answer 9

It's kind of a trick question.  For the time being, I believe gas is better.  It's clean, unlike wood, although wood types vary on the byproducts they produce.  I equate electricity with dams and there's a ton of beautiful valleys in California I'll never get to see because they flooded them and called them lakes.

We converted our fireplace to wood when we moved in and now we're converting it back to gas.  It doesn't have the fireplace smell I love so much but if you've ever visited a small community in winter and seen the haze hanging over town, burning wood fires turns into a guilt trip.

But eventually gas supplies will dwindle and be reserved for special uses, so electric would be the way to go.

Answer 10

Use the fake ones, the one that look like you really have one and there's really a fire. It's better because there is no smoke to harm the environment. Who is gonna be using one in the summer anyway? But hey it might be a british question right? ok

Answer 11

Did anyone ever think that a forest fire puts out more smoke then a whole city burning  wood stoves, common people pull it together, if you want to have a fire have a fire, I know the tree huggers will be up in arms but these are the same people who would protest people having a campfire in the woods, the smoke oh the humanity. And according to them, we shouldn't be in the woods anyway because we are disturbing nature, lmaos

Answer 12

Smart Fire is a company out of Australia that uses Ethanol Alcohol rather than natural gas or wood.  Ethanol Alcohol is easy to produce and obtain and burns clean without fumes or the need to vent.

Answer 13

at first glance one would think using a natural wood burning stove to heat your home would be environmentally sound. The problem is we are already using so much timber that we can't afford to speed the depletion.

Also, what ever you end up burning is going to spew out into our atmosphere and cause air pollution.

that doesn't necessarily mean gas fireplaces are better. sure they are cleaner, but there you go again with the dependence on oil.

I would work towards making sure your home has a good weathering system in place; insulated properly, dual pane windows, even those goofy heads with long arms at the base of your doors.  Wear sweatshirts or sweaters in the house. Use throw blankets.

Answer 14

Pellet stoves are the best. They can be hooked into an existing forced air unit to heat the whole house, plus you get the added benefit of recycling parts of plants and vegetables that are thought "useless". And the flames are nice to sit by with a cold glass of wine and an interesting book.....or "friend".