There’s a growing movement, with good reasons, to eliminate natural gas from our homes. Think carbon monoxide poisoning. Or the bad health effects of inhaling methane. Or home explosions from gas leaks. Or how the use of natural gas (which is methane) contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change.
While it’s easy (and financially incentivized by state, federal and utility re-bates) to replace your gas furnace with a ducted or ductless heat pump system and your gas-fired water heater with a heat-pump water heater, many homeowners — myself included when I owned a single-family home — find it hard to accept giving up their gas fireplaces and gas grills.
Rita and I had to give up our gas grill when we moved into an apartment with balcony, but the George Foreman electric grill is a great replacement — and costs less to buy and operate. (You can also use it indoors!) But I didn’t know until recently that there are some fine alternatives if you are willing to give up your gas fireplace.
As an active Realtor, I have seen and listed many homes with electric fireplaces. One of my recently sold listings, which you can still view at www.GreenMountainHome.info, has an electric fireplace sitting on the hearth of the wood-burning fireplace in the basement. Fast forward to 3:45 in that listing’s video tour to see it. The seller explained that the wood-burning fireplace would always overheat the basement, but the electric fireplace can be controlled with a thermostat.
Temperature control is just one of the challenges with wood-burning and most gas fireplaces. I mentioned others in the first paragraph above, but cost of operation is another one. Many people just want the ambiance of a burning fireplace, which you can get for pennies per hour from an electric fireplace, but most electric fireplaces also having heating modes, and if you want heat from it, the electric cost is still less than the cost of gas for an equivalent amount of heat generation.
Much of the heat generated by a gas (or wood) fireplace goes up the chimney, whereas electric fireplaces are unvented and therefore 100% efficient in that respect. No chimney also means no rodents or birds taking up residence in them.
At www.ElephantEnergy.com you’ll find a web page devoted to electric fireplaces, from which I downloaded the two pictures below. On that page they describe seven different types of electric fireplaces, two of which — an insert and wall-mounted — are shown here.
That web page addresses the following considerations: Lower costs; reduced carbon emissions; increased energy efficiency; improved safety; ambiance options; and model types.
In terms of costs, the web page claims a 30% savings over the cost of a gas fireplace. The electric fireplace generates less heat at lower cost, but when it’s used to supplement, not replace, your central heating or for ambiance, that should be fine. If your home is solar-powered, it can be free. You can’t create gas!
Model types which offer ambiance and/or heating options are broken down as follows:
Pre-fab fireplaces can be either free-standing or wall-mounted and can be plugged into any 120 Volt outlet. They range from $400 to $4,000 depending on the features you want.
Custom fireplaces require unique installation and can range in price from $2,000 to $10,000.
Wall-mounted fireplaces resemble flat-screen televisions and can cost as little as $300.
Electric fireplace inserts allow you to make attractive use of your existing fireplace hearth and firebox. According to the website, they range in price from $400 to $3,000.
Recessed electric fireplaces are nice if you’re willing to build out a wall to accommodate the unit’s depth, and can be quite attractive. The design options are limited only by your imagination. Cost can range from $400 to $7,000 or more.
Built-in electric fireplaces are just a variation on the above, but typically include a hearth, mantel and surround. Intended for heating, not just ambiance, they can range from $3,000 to over $10,000.
Water vapor electric fireplaces are my favorite. No one will mistake them for a gas or wood-burning fireplace, but they “spark” elegance and style. That’s the other example included above. They create 3-di-mensional “flames” through the use of water vapor and LED lights. Heating is not an option.
Elephant Energy does not sell fireplaces (or other systems), but they link to ModernBlaze.com, which sells a wide variety of all the types of fireplaces listed above. They offer free shipping and returns and a 10% discount if you sign up for text messages.
If You Want an Actual Flame, Ethanol Is a ‘Green’ Option
Last week I shot a narrated video tour of an all-electric home that will be in October 7’s Metro Denver Green Homes Tour. It’s Michele Merritt’s Lakewood home, and she has two fireplaces that burn liquid ethanol. (Fast forward to 2:33 in my video tour.)
Ethanol fireplaces are the easiest kind to install because they require no venting, construction or electrical outlet. You can build it into a wall, like a regular fireplace, but you can also have one as an indoor firepit (see picture below), since CO2 is the only fume. You pour the liquid ethanol (basically just alcohol) into the reservoir and light it. A one-liter bottle of ethanol will burn for several hours. ModernBlaze.com sells 6 bottles for $87 including shipping. They sell a 24-inch ethanol burner for $1,895.
Here’s a link to the full writeup on ModernBlaze.com about ethanol fireplaces (from which I downloaded the above picture).
.
Golden Real Estate's Blog 