I don’t want to rain on the parade or anything, but everyone understands that the particulate matter in wood smoke is, in fact, very not good for you?
I particularly wanted to address this to the person who was offended by houses with gas fireplaces sitting on lots of land with trees. It’s not stupid. There’s a really legitimate health reason for that.
A quick google search on “is wood smoke dangerous” will turn up plenty of reputable hits, including official policies from some US states. This is legitimate stuff, no matter how upsetting it is to people (who include me) who have fond associations with fireplaces.
The danger of fireplaces comes from idiots using them. If you leave an open fire untended in your house it’s dangerous. If you don’t clean the flue regularly, it’s dangerous. If your chimney isn’t inspected for damage and leaks regularly, it’s dangerous. If you don’t know the damper has to be open, it’s dangerous. I don’t have the figures, but an awful lot of people die or are seriously harmed by gas fireplaces from carbon monoxide poisoning because of a clogged or blocked flue. With a wood fire the smoke is usually a hint that something’s wrong. With gas you might have no indication of a problem.
I like fireplaces, but didn’t particularly want one (work, mess, fire hazard, and so forth). I have a gas fireplace in my house, but it wasn’t a selling point for me. I chose the place for other reasons. I do use it occasionally, though–mostly when I’m home sick, or when I have friends over doing stuff out in the cold.
<cough>
I was a single female living in the house I owned with a fireplace for seven years. I usually stacked and carried all my own wood, in the middle of winter. When I didn’t have it delivered, I loaded it into my truck, then unloaded it at the house.
I even used the chainsaw that I own to cut up a felled tree.
All on my ownsome, too!
That’s a good point, actually. I always thought I was a weirdo for not liking the smell of wood smoke (it actually makes me nauseated), but it turns out my body is smarter than I am.
Nah, I don’t think I would want a house with a fireplace. My parents have a gas one (instead of a furnace in their extension) and it’s way too hot. My friends have a real wood-burning one, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it in use at their house.
It also seems to be a nightmare when there are little kids around.
There was a fireplace in the last house I lived in. Didn’t care for it, because the living room would be warm and the rest of the house would be quite cold unless you cranked the thermostat up to 75.
I was never that keen on them, but the house we bought a couple of years ago has a wood burning fireplace in it. And I have to admit I like it a lot, we had several trees dropped (due to proximity to the house and they were starting to rot) and so I have three big piles of wood that we have been burning all winter.
There is something nice about a fire crackling that I enjoy. I didn’t grow up with a fireplace but it is a selling point now for me.
We also do fire pits in the back yard in the spring and fall. And chopping the firewood is great exercise! What is the old saying–he who chops his own wood is heated twice?
I like them and have two gas burning only ones in my house. If I had a zillion to design my own house, I’d have a lot of those, but also at least one really big old fashioned colonial cooking fireplace in the kitchen for cooking.
I don’t like them; I’ve lived in places where fireplaces were a common and highly-touted feature and I’d specify “no fireplaces” when looking for a rental. One of my Glasgow apartments had a non-working fireplace which was just covered with a board; the area in front of it was always noticeably colder than the rest. The maintenance is a PITA too, from the experience of friends who have one in their summer house.
Barbecue pit outside if I had the room for it, yes. Fireplace, no.
When we lived in NJ we had one, and bought a half cord of wood for it. We liked it. Here in the Bay Area we have a fireplace in a room we hardly ever use, and a wood burning stove in our living room, We hardly use either, I think the last time we used the wood burning stove (pellets) was well over a decade ago, and when we use the fireplace we use fake logs. But it just isn’t cold enough to make it very appealing.
My mom has a little one built in with a glass lid, like this. I love it. It gives a lot of mess, though. I especially like the raised piece of wall before it that I can sit on.
In my childhood experiences, fireplaces were annoying things that took a lot of work to set up and clean and frequently didn’t work properly. It seemed like a lot of effort for something that could be easily accomplished with a thermostat. So no, I wouldn’t want one. I live in Southern California, so there’s not much use for anyway.
I have a wood-burning fireplace and like it. I used it last weekend when it was ridiculously cold. I’ve never had a gas fireplace, but a neighbor does and it seems to me that his doesn’t generate nearly as much heat as mine. In fact, you have to stand almost right in front of it to feel anything.
Mine, on the other hand, heats my entire home. Of course it takes hours to do so, and many trips to the cord stack, but eventually the house becomes nice and toasty.
It’s also nice to hear the critters pop that have burrowed into the wood for the Winter.
We call a chimney sweep about once a year to clean out all the deposits. It doesn’t, to my knowledge, make the fireplace more efficient, but it gives my wife peace of mind, allaying her fear of the house burning down.
