Ethanol Fireplace Inserts
My wife saw an ethanol fireplace insert on this years Park Slope house tour and would like to get one. Does anyone here have experience with using these inside a gas fireplace [from which the gas is disconnected]? Are they safe? Do they give any appreciable amount of heat?
BobMarvin
in Fire 10 years and 5 months ago
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williamsburgguys | 10 years and 5 months ago
Hey Dave. Back in my Arkansas days we had a new McMansion style house and it had a couple unvented gas log fireplaces and one giant size vented one with a tempered glass front. The logsets in the unvented ones specifically were rated as unvented and the flames were definitely solid blue with no yellow in them and from my understanding as long as the flames are kept blue then CO is negligible. We had CO alarms all over the house and none ever went off. However the thing I disliked about them is natural gas has a lot of water content in it and the windows always sweated in the rooms that had the unvented fireplaces due to the added moisture added to the air. So even with the triple pane windows in the house, the really cold outside temps were enough to condense the water and I was always having to keep paper towels nearby to dry them and the sills when the unvented fireplaces were running. Maybe in an old brownstone that is still drafty the moisture would escape.
daveinbedstuy | 10 years and 5 months ago
Terry…I installed one of these gas burning coal baskets in my fireplace after i sealed up, yes, sealed up the damper and flue. The leading fireplace and chimney restorer in Philadelphia did a very large mansion down here for a friend of mine. Though he opened a few of the fireplaces and relined the flues for burning wood, he installed two of these after closing up the flues (i used a sheet of aluminum placed just at the top of the fire box). He stated that these are as safe to use and produce no more CO than running a gas rangetop. They burn hot and clean (blue flames) and you can run them with minimum room ventilation. He showed me the emissions with a high tech CO meter. No, I would not run one all night long in a bedroom with windows sealed shut but i had many enjoyable evenings with one of these in my brownstone fireplace. http://www.victorianfireplaceshop.com/gas-coals.html I bought this one and used a decorative frontpiece that i bought at urbanremainschicago.com. Seems they have gone up quite a bit in price. As per the chimney expert, ignore the sellers statements about it must be vented.
shahnandersen
in Fire 10 years and 5 months ago
Start with the Marketplace on Brownstoner. Find a Pro > Doors, Windows, Roofing, Chimneys & Fireplaces.
terryhoppy | 10 years and 5 months ago
thanks so much; do you know of anyone who does this type of work; I would be so grateful. terry
williamsburgguys | 10 years and 5 months ago
Terry in order to burn GAS you would definitely need to reline the flues or have the double wall vented piping installed because natural gas produces carbon monoxide which can leak between the old mortar joints into yours or your neighbors house – as well as a really hot flame. You would also need a set of ceramic gas logs to deal with the heat. The alcohol logs using the quart cans of alcohol gel or even the liquid tray alcohol styles do not produce anything other than water vapor when they burn and the heat produced is much lower, even though they do heat the room somewhat. The appearance of the alcohol logs is the same as the gas logs, but they are a ceramic fiber rather than hard ceramic bisque. Bob – I have refilled the empty gel cans with plain liquid ethanol in the past and they seem to burn exactly the same as the gel canisters with no noticeable heat difference, although the burning time is faster since liquid alcohol is more volatile and evaporates faster – I get about 3 hours out of each burning can of gel whereas about 1-1.5 hours out of the same amount of liquid ethanol in the old cans. However I have seen some of the modern-look open-tray types which have a much larger surface area than 2-3 of the quart cans so I would assume the larger surface area could burn slightly hotter. I worry more when burning the liquid as it is subject to spilling whereas the gel is almost like burning a can of grape jelly. If you turn the can of gel on its side, it runs out thick and very slowly like a thick fruit jelly and you even need a spoon to get it all out of the can.
terryhoppy | 10 years and 5 months ago
HI: I have a brownstone in park slope; I would love to open up my fireplace and have a burning fireplace; how do I go about it and do I use gas with the ethanol inserts etc. thanks
BobMarvin | 10 years and 5 months ago
Thank you williamsburg guys. I was actually wondering about the inserts that burn liquid ethanol, as opposed to gel. I think they might produce more heat. Does anyone have experience with that?
williamsburgguys | 10 years and 5 months ago
We have 4 ethanol log-sets in the 4 fireplaces in our house inside the old coal fireplaces which have not been relined, plus one simply hanging on the wall in the basement den. They are safe enough to use even sitting on a coffee table, only giving off water vapor as the byproduct. They do produce some heat, but not enough to harm the old brick and mortar in the old fireplaces. You can actually hold your hand above the flames and not get burned. Over time, they do actually warm a room a few degrees however. We get the Realflame ethanol gel from Walmart.com and the cans last around 2-3 hours, long enough for a party or dinner, but produce no byproducts to dispose of except for the empty metal cans. Visitors always remark how beautiful the burning fireplaces are on a cold or snowy day, and they really are nothing to maintain – just open a can or two of fuels and ignite them. Supposedly you can use them in totally sealed fireplaces, however because they are real flames and real heat, I would be careful to use them in a sealed fireplace if the materials they used to seal them are flammable.