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[151949]

I live in Florida and when we get an occasional cold morning when the heat pump is straining to catch up we turn on the heater on our electric fireplace. It is exactly what the doctor ordered.Warms our great room right up. 

We had a wood fireplce in Pa and converted it to gas - we were so sorry. The gas did not heat the space well and was very expensive to run. I vote for wood burning.

[pinky ann]

Our fireplace is a gas one that we converted it from wood years ago. I have no idea the set up of it, but it does heat our house nicely. It's used along with our regular heat in winter, and when we want a little extra warmth on damp, chilly, rainy days any time of year it's just terrific. I love a wood fire, but wouldn't trade the ease and comfort of the gas for anything. pinky

[Snowpuppy]

It depends on your climate. Here in Northern MI woodburning is preferred and seasoned hardwood is easy to come by and still fairly inexpensive. Pellet stoves are a secondary choice. Natural gas wouldnt give off enough heat to take the chill off a room when its 15 below outside.

EPA changed rules on wood burning stand alone stoves recently. Doesnt affect fireplaces at all. Small conversion kits can upgrade most older stoves at a small cost.

[ID2]

I live in Northern MI also. We have a direct vent gas fireplace and it absolutely COOKS in here! From what I experience with our gas fireplace I can't imagine those that say theres doesn't heat their room. Ours is a brand new energy efficient unit. When it was way sub zero last winter we were cooking in our home with our natural gas fireplace! Love it!

[Mominohio]

Choice between these would depend on climate lived in, using for heat source or just ambiance, and how much work one is able/willing to do, as the wood burning fireplace is a lot more work and cleaning.

I grew up with and had in my early adult homes, wood burning fireplaces that were used for the ambiance, not for actual heating. I'd never be interested in gas, too expensive, but I love a wood fire. 

If it is heating they are looking for, they should be going with some kind of stove, wood or pellet, as the fireplaces really aren't energy efficient as a source of heat.

[Lilysmom]

I have gas and wood burning.  My preference is wood.  I appreciate that wood burning is more work but, to me, there is nothing like a wood burning stove in winter.  Our wood burning stove changed the way we use our home.  In winter we spend a lot more time in the family room.  LM

[CANDLEQUEEN]

We have a real wood burning fireplace in this home and had one in our lsat home, and while they are much more work, to me and my opinion they are gorgeous when you have wood burning and I love the smell, and the crackle of it..We clean ours often and it is messy but tome an my family-totally worth it. Now with that being said-Gas Fireplaces are getting prettier and prettier and for a bedroom -would love it!!!!!!!!!

[Nhbelle]

If they want it for heat have they looked into a wood stove? Uses real wood, puts out a lot of heat, good for power outages too.

[Katluver925]

We have a new gas insert with a blower in our old wood burning fireplace.  You set what temperature you want using a remote and the flame varies in size according to how hot you want the room.  It heats up really fast and we usually have to turn it off because it gets too hot.  We are in So. California and haven't used it a lot, because we haven't gotten a lot of cold weather the last two years.  I think this type of fireplace will heat their room as compared to the old gas fireplaces that were for atmosphere only.

[jaxs mom]

I hate gas fireplaces. They are basically useless except for looking at and even then it doesn't compare to a wood fire. When I was young and had roommates one of them stupidly left the gas on overnight and the gas bill was outragous. 

I've had gas fireplaces a couple times, and wood fireplaces multiple times and a wood stove. For heat a wood stove is better than a fireplace plus you can cook or reheat food on it. Although you can also cook in a wood fireplace too. We had an actual log wood stove, not a pellet stove. We would buy a few cords of wood to get us through the winter.  I really miss having a wood stove. 

I've managed the ( log not pellet) wood stove on my own all winter in the past, it's not really hard. We bought the wood at the end of summer or early fall for the whole winter. It's cut and stacked. I did occasionally have to cut kindling but most of the time I was really good about keeping the coals going so all I had to do was blow on the coals to get the wood going in the morning. You just set the damper before going to bed so the fire doesn't burn out. I made some great meals on that wood stove too, and fermented yogurt near it in the warmth of the radient heat.