Ready to Upgrade Your Fireplace?

Special Gas Insert Rebate Plus Financing

Are you ready to give your home a warm and cozy makeover? Installing or upgrading a fireplace is just the thing for you. Whether your old wood-burning fireplace needs some sprucing up or you’d like to add a brand new one with all the modern features, making this change can have impressive results.

Not only will it aesthetically improve your space, but having an efficient fire system in place can also help reduce energy bills while warming up chilly winter evenings. Before starting this project, there are some important things to consider that can ensure success.

You can read on to learn why it might be time to upgrade or install a new fireplace to bring comfort and style into your living space:

Why A Gas Insert?

Efficiency

First and foremost, a gas fireplace has a huge advantage over a wood burning one because of their energy-efficient nature. Wood fires generally convert about 10 to 30 percent of the fuel’s energy into heat whereas a gas fireplace converts 75 to 99 percent of a fuel’s energy into heat for your home.

Ease of Use

A gas fireplace is far easier than a wood burning one to start, maintain, and use. There are no logs to split, carry, take up space, and season. Fires in a gas fireplace do not need to be tended to and fed with more logs and won’t die out if you leave it alone like a wood fire.

Unlike with a wood fire, there is no cleaning ashes or smells of smoke wafting into your home.

Gas fireplaces can be lit with the push of a button on your thermostat or with a remote control. You can also adjust them and put them out with the use of your thermostat.

Heat Output

Because your thermostat can control the gas fire, you can also adjust the heat output. If it’s too hot, you can easily adjust the flame to your liking. The same goes if it’s too cold. The thermostat will even maintain the temperature setting for you and adjust the fire accordingly.

Additionally, if you choose a gas fireplace with fixed glass panels and a direct-vent, you can ensure heat doesn’t escape up the flue as it does with a wood fire. This translates to even more heat output when you need it and a greater degree of fuel efficiency.

Style

This comes down to personal choice. You make like the classic look of a traditional fireplace with wood logs. But if you are after a sleek, modern look then a glass-enclosed gas fireplace may be exactly what you are looking for.

Fireplace Options

If you’ve settled on installing a gas fireplace, there’s still another step to consider: what kind do you want? There are many different types and styles, each of which has something to offer your home.

Vented (or Direct Vent)

Gas fireplaces don’t produce any smoke or odors, but – as with any fire – they still produce dangerous and toxic byproducts. A vented, also known as a direct vent, fireplace is the safest method of getting pollutants such as carbon monoxide out of your home.

Direct vent fireplaces pull in air from outside your house and into a sealed firebox. Then the fumes from the flame are vented outside of your home through a different exhaust pipe which is installed at the same time as the fireplace.

While cold air is being drawn into the fire box and fumes are vented outside your home, cool air from inside your house is drawn into a separate chamber with a built-in fan, warmed by the heat of the fire, and then the heated air is blown back into the room along with the radiant heat direct in front of the fire.

Log Sets

Gas log sets are the least expensive and least efficient type of gas fireplace. Providing your traditional fireplace is in good working order, all that is required to install one of these is to drill access for gas pipes in an existing fireplace and then the ceramic logs and burner are hooked up and ready to go.

Most of the heat created by one of these units is lost because your chimney damper must be open the whole time the fire is active so that the fumes can escape your home. Because of this, log sets should really be treated as decorative home design choices and not as an option for serious wintertime heating.

Prefabricated Fireplaces

For homes without an existing fireplace, a prefabricated gas fireplace is the best choice. For vented models, an exhaust stack is installed venting and a mantelpiece and surround can be built for aesthetics. The firebox is connected to gas lines and the fireplace is essentially ready to go.

If you’re considering making this change, be sure to schedule a consultation with our team so we can help you choose the right model, installation and pricing package for your needs.

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