How much to run your gas fireplace.

[Snagglefoot]

So the flu closes when the fireplace is not burning?

No. On this gas fireplace there is an exit for the combustion products up the chimney but there is no “ flue”.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Are there more efficient fireplaces? Or is the value given fairly standard? How does this cost compare to the processed logs for regular fireplaces?

Here are some of my costs for fireplaces.

Propane fireplace.

Propane is $1.80 USD per USG.
Efficiency is .6
Output is 30,000 BTU/hr.
Cost per million BTU of output is $29.38 USD per million BTU.

Fir Firewood in Airtight Stove with outside air inlet
$245 USD per cord. Efficiency is 0.7
Cost per million BTU is $ 16.59 per million BTU

Natural gas Fireplace
Natural gas here is $8.38 USD per mcf
Efficiency is 0.7
Output is 30,000 BTU per hour
Cost per million BTU is $12 per million BTU.

Also, I will include my propane boiler.

Propane is $1.80 US per USG.
Efficiency is .95
Output is 108,000 BTU/hr.
Cost per million BTU of output is $18.55 USD per million BTU. Natural gas is much cheaper all in than propane here. Trouble is, it doesn’t reach this mountain community.

Propane is a priced pretty low this year in Western Canada. The efficiency of my propane fireplace is much lower than my propane boiler and so I use it for ambience, and also on very cold days I use it because I have a lot of glass in my living room, and I like to touch up the temperature there by running the fireplace on the thermostat and it will touch up the temperature about 3 times per hour, running about 1/3 of each hour all together.

 

[Hall]

It warms the downstairs of our house depending on outside temperature

Ours had no issue heating our downstairs comfortably. We needed to run the ceiling fans on low to help circulate the air around though. One year we had a pretty bad snow/ice storm and lost power for just under 24 hours. The kids and I "camped" out in the living room with sleeping bags and blankets and were fine ! My wife didn't want to sleep on the floor though so she slept in our bed with extra blankets !

Problem is, the thermostat for the entire house sits 12-15' from the fireplace...so upstairs could be 63....

Same, but our thermostat was more like 5' away.

 

[matrass]

I dont not run my firepalce that often.

Nice to have though .

 

[Snagglefoot]

I dont not run my firepalce that often.

Nice to have though .

Yes, pretty much. I just finished putting in a new thermocouple and have posted it in the Forum, so it's much on my mind, and I'm determined to get some use out of it one way or another. I'm finding the best use is on a cold night or socked-in day where the excess number of windows makes this section of the room a bit cooler than the rest of the house. Using the wall thermostat, I'm getting it to come on for about 20 minutes out of an hour and it touches up the temperature. Not too bad even knowing the lower efficiency makes it more expensive. An electrical heater at 100% efficiency would be cheaper but there would not be quite the same ambience. If this was new construction it would probably be an electric fireplace. Such is the way things are going.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I’m at $13.32/million btu all in on NG. I’ve got direct vent fireplaces that I use very seldomly but are nice to have for backup heat if we have an extended power outage. They’ll raise the temp in the house when it is single digits outside as long as you turn them on shortly after the power goes out. The basement and 2nd floor will be colder but with some fans to blow heat around or hack the furnaces blower wiring it’d be pretty peasant. I know my pool heater is the biggest consumer I have at 400k btu/hr and I let the kids know it when I run the dang thing.

 

[Snagglefoot]

The nameplate rating is input BTU, a theoretical number based on the designed flow rate of gas and the heat realized were the fuel to be completely burned and the resulting water vapor condensed.

The gallons or cubic feet of fuel per hour entering the appliance, and thus the operating cost per hour can be computed directly from the input rating.

BTU delivered to the room as usable heat is input * efficiency.

Pilot lights can use a significant amount of gas during standby.

From Google searches, it’s about 600 BTU per hour.
So 600 x 24 x 365 = 5,256,000 BTU.

5,256,000/91,500 = 57.4 gallons. Say the propane was $2.50 USD per gallon. That would be $144 per year. I turn off the pilot light in the spring and light it in the fall.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Fireplaces with pilot lights do not require 110 V electricity to function. However, if you want to use the blower fan they require 110 V power.

The new fireplaces with electronic ignition require 110 V which means if you have a power outage your fireplace will not work unless you have a generator.

I’m not talking about the sparker for just igniting a pilot light. That typically runs on a battery.

I’m happy with my pilot light. Like many Bottoggers I don’t want to be totally dependant on the grid. I also like my wood stove and can make a grilled cheese sandwich in a frying pan on top the stove. Bring it on!

 

[Snagglefoot]

Depending on your main heating system vs your fireplace used for ambience, any contribution of heat from the fireplace is subtracted from the heat provided by main heating system. For instance if the main heating system is contributing heat for $19 per million BTU, and your fireplace does if for $30 per million BTU, your net extra cost is $11 per million BTU, not $30. It makes it a bit more palatable when choosing the fireplace for ambience.

 

[Donald]

Wife stopping complaining > Price to run gas fireplace

Gas fireplace is for enhancement of wife's mood. Cannot put a price on it.

 

[dbias]

I have a natural gas log insert in my chimney but I only use it in emergency for power outages. That and my gas water heater kept me warm and clean when the power was out for a week. Warm and clean in the dark lol

 

[4wd]

There should be a metal plate somewhere with the efficiency. Even my condensing propane boiler is only 95% efficent.

So if the plate on a fireplace says 60% efficient, 40% is lost out the exhaust.

For a vent free fireplace, yes it would be 100% ( confirm it with the plate). What you trade off is you will be breathing in the small amount of whatever is in the exhaust. ( which is not much), no more than what comes off a gas cooking stove.

We have an 18,000 BTU vent free … once the novelty wore off - don’t really use it - but zero doubt it could get us through a blackout - however we are on a very stable grid - so it would take physical damage from ice or storms etc …
Anyway - it makes heat quickly !