A modern furnace is more efficient in turning gas into heat than a gas fireplace. This means that although a furnace costs more to run per hour than a gas fireplace, it turns more of that energy into heat and can warm a whole house rather than a single room.
While each type of fireplace has its own advantages that may work better for your needs, if you just want something that's simple to use, not too expensive or tricky to maintain and provides a good amount of heat output, a gas-burning fireplace is your winner.
An electric fireplace is extremely energy efficient as outlined in the points above. It's much more efficient than a space heater or an Amish heater when it comes to heating a single room or even a large space.
Natural gas is a fairly inexpensive form of energy, so a gas fireplace is inexpensive to run. Gas fireplaces cost 17-19 cents an hour to run, or about $60 annually, Electric Fireplaces Direct says. Wood-burning fireplaces cost about $190 annually to produce a number of BTUs similar to a gas fireplace.
When it comes to efficiency, gas fireplaces have wood-burning fireplaces and pellet fireplaces beat. The use of gas is just much more efficient than than having to burn wood or pellets, not to mention that a gas fireplace doesn't require electricity to run.
Depending on what you pay for electricity, wood heat can be a very cost-effective alternative. For example, if you are paying $0.10 per KWH for energy charges plus delivery charges, fees, and taxes, wood pellets would save you about 50 percent on your heating bill, and cordwood would save even more.
Wood-burning fireplaces are usually the first type to come to mind, and they are a classic feature in any home. However, they aren't going to save money on energy costs. Up to 80-90 percent of the heat generated by a wood-burning fireplace is lost through the chimney.
There are four types of fireplaces: Wood-burning, gas-burning, electric and ethanol-burning fireplace.
Electric heaters and gas fireplaces both produce heat immediately once activated. However, gas fireplaces tend to be better than electric units for heating larger rooms because of their higher heating capacity. You may also feel gas heat more quickly than electric heat if you're standing further away in a room.
A homeowner can often recover over 100 percent of the expenses associated with adding a fireplace upon selling their home. According to the National Association of Real Estate Appraisers, adding a fireplace to home can increase the resale value of the home by as much as 6-12 percent.
Operating a furnace for one hour at 75,000 -100,000 Btu cost a homeowner $1.12 - $1.49 based on last month's national average natural gas rate. By comparison, a natural gas fireplace running at 30,000 Btu per hour cost only 45 cents.
When comparing the most efficient options in both categories (gas furnaces and gas fireplaces), it really comes down to what you're trying to accomplish. If you want to heat a single room, a fireplace is going to do a better job of that. However, if you want to heat multiple rooms, then a furnace will be better.
A modern furnace is more efficient in turning gas into heat than a gas fireplace. This means that although a furnace costs more to run per hour than a gas fireplace, it turns more of that energy into heat and can warm a whole house rather than a single room.
Wood-Burning Fireplaces
In fact, most of the warm air generated by wood fireplaces is released through your chimney. And because you have to leave your damper open for hours to let any remaining embers burn down, using a wood-burning fireplace can actually leave your home colder than it was before you even lit a fire.
Gas fireplaces rely on consistent combustion to produce real flames and keep the fire burning for long periods of time. Overall, gas fireplaces are highly efficient when it comes to heating a room. Once a fire has been burning for some time, it's likely to heat a room rather quickly.
Currently, the average cost of electricity in the United States is approximately 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. This means it will cost you approximately 15 cents per hour to operate an electric fireplace. If we extrapolate this number, we can provide several other cost estimates: 2 hours/day: $0.36/day or $10.95/month.
A standard 20,000 BTU gas fireplace will use about 20 cubic feet of natural gas per hour. Given that price of natural gas is about $1.09 per 100 cubic feet, running a standard-sized gas fireplace will cost about $0.22/hour at 100% heating output. In short: Gas fireplaces are quite inexpensive to run.
Save Money
You may have guessed that the energy efficiency of electric fireplaces also makes them more cost-efficient. As far as fireplaces go, electric is the least expensive. One of the reasons why is because electric fireplaces provide supplemental zone heating.
Choosing a fireplace depends on several factors: position, style, finishing material and type of fuel used. It can be used to heat a room and, in some cases, to cook meals. Today, there are fireplaces for all indoor spaces adapted to different lifestyles and expectations.
The part of the fireplace that holds the fire is called a firebox or a firepit. There is a chimney or flue above the firebox that lets the smoke from the fire go outside.
The standard fireplace is among the most inefficient heating devices you can operate. In fact, it can be so inefficient that in some cases it actually makes your house colder.
If you're installing a wood-burning fireplace insert, you'll pay between $700 and $6,500. But if you're constructing and installing a wood-burning fireplace from scratch, you could pay upwards of $30,000. Higher numbers are more likely if you need foundation work to hold up the weight of a new fireplace.