Believe It Or Not – Fireplace Myths You Should Be Aware Of!
The right fireplace can be a spectacular addition to virtually any home. Of course, it has the obvious practical benefit of being able to heat your home and keep you nice and warm during frigid weather, but it can also carry a certain air of romance about it. They create an unmistakably special atmosphere, whether cozy or romantic, and can just make your home into a great place to be.
Contemporary Gas Fireplace
But for all of their considerable advantages, there are many things that people believe about fireplaces which just aren’t true. Certain fireplace myths, might hold people back from installing a unit when they might otherwise be stoked to do so. While other fireplace myths might cause someone to rush out and pick up a unit that they aren’t properly prepared to care for.
More knowledge is always a good thing. That’s why we’re going to go through and dispel ten of the most common fireplace myths that people believe about both gas and electric fireplaces. Throughout our discussion, some of what we say will apply to contemporary gas fireplaces, while other things might hold for electric or classic wood-burning units. We want to be sure to provide you with the broadest base of knowledge possible.
With help and expertise from the Original Flame, you’ll be able to overcome any trepidation or uncertainty holding back from hooking up and enjoying the heating unit of your dreams this winter.
Let’s Dispel Some Fireplace Myths!
1. They Aren’t Energy Efficient
This especially tends be a concern for wood-burning units, but some especially environmentally conscious folks may worry about this with respect to gas and electric units as well. Rest assured, this is a complete myth. A contemporary electric fireplace is built with advanced energy-saving technology which ensures that not an ounce of power goes to waste. The same goes for a traditional gas fireplace, which uses propane to generate heat and therefore won’t tax your home’s heating system.
As for wood-burning units, they won’t run up your energy bill at all. In fact, modern units can last as long as fourteen hours on a single burn. Just make sure you have plenty of wood around!
2. Electric is More Cheaper Than Gas, or Vice Versa
The truth is more complicated than any simplistic statement like that can be. In actual fact, both gas and electric units have their own advantages, and either one or the other can be right for you, depending on your situation. Like many things in life, it all involves a trade-off.
Gas units usually require more work and/or home remodelling to install, which could rack up initial costs. Most electric units, on the other hand, can just be mounted on a wall. However, gas units tend to give you more heat than electricity per unit of energy, which may give you energy bill savings. Still, you should keep in mind that modern gas an electric units are both built with advanced enough enough technology to provide impressive energy efficiency.
3. Wood-Burning Units Can Ruin Your Home’s Air Quality
This used to be true, but technology has come a long way. Clean burn technology has made it so that even with a wood-burning unit, you don’t have to worry about your indoor air quality. The environment will thank you as well.
4. You Can Save Money By Doing Your Own Maintenance
While there are certainly some things that you can do on your own to keep your unit in good working order and extend its life as far as possible, don’t be over-reliant on patching things up yourself. Trust us, any money that you might save by not calling a technician will be gone if your unit breaks down because of some preventable issue that a trained professional could have detected — and then some.
Problems with gas or electric units might have be related to problem with your home’s wiring or heating systems. Unless you have special skills working with such things, trying to do everything yourself will probably do more harm than good.
If you’ve got a wood-burning unit, chimney can be especially difficult to clean without professional help. When wood burns, can build up in the brickwork of your chimney, and you’ll need special tools to clean it out and prevent damage to your walls.
Don’t ever hesitate to call technicians for professional assistance with maintenance.
5. You Only Need to Do Inspections if You Notice Something Wrong
It might be tempting to fall into this habit, but we strongly advise you not too. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” might seem like sensible advice, but of course, something might be broken when you don’t even realize that it is. You should always schedule maintenance check for your unit every year. The trained technicians at the Original Flame will be happy to help you with that.
6. They’re Poor Sources of Heat
Occasionally, you might hear that electric fireplaces don’t distribute heat evenly around the home or that wood-burning ones send too much heat flying up the chimney. Again, this isn’t true. To the extent that this ever was a problem, it’s one that modern technology has done a lot to solve. Firebacks can help radiate heat through a room for wood-burning units much better. As for the other types, they tend to come readymade with heat distribution technology.
7. They Can Make Your Room Cooler Instead of Warmer
This may seem like a strange one, but this is a myth that you may hear repeated from time to time. The first thing to understand is that the nugget of truth to be found here applies only to wood-burning units. Anyone who says this with respect to electric or contemporary gas fireplaces just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Wood-burning units, though, consume oxygen. When your room runs out of warm oxygen to catalyze burning, cooler air will usually be dragged in from someplace. To counteract the cooling effect of this, we recommend getting a fireback.
8. They’re Expensive to Install
Whether this is true depends on the kind of unit you want. A massive, classic wood-burner will still cost you, but putting in even a contemporary gas fireplace can be quite cheap. The Original Flame manufactures insertable and wall-mountable units of all kinds so the amount of preparatory work you’ll have to do can be minimal.
9. They’re Bulky
If a large and grandiose fireplace ins’t right for your home, don’t worry. Our units — and especially our inserts — can be quite portable while still packing a punch. If necessary, we can get you a small and unobtrusive unit that still heats your home marvellously.
10. They’re Expensive
As you might have guessed, how much you pay will depend on the type of unit you want, but it’s absolutely false that all fireplaces end up costing you an arm and a leg. The Original Flame can offer you a great many very affordable units of both the gas and electric variety. Just have a look at our selection.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve been armed with this fireplace myths knowledge, we think you’re in a far better position to pick out the perfect fireplace for your home. The Original Flame is the top fireplace installation and maintenance destination in all of Peterborough and the general Western Ontario area. To help you pick out exactly the fireplace you want, please check out the following information about some of our different types of contemporary electric fireplaces and some of our advanced gas-burning units.
You won’t be left out in the cold when The Original Flame is with you.
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