Flame effect gas fire..

tanith

We have a flame effect fire , it was in the house when we bought it.. we hardly use it at all as OH thinks its very expensive to run as the flame is burning gas all the time.. it actually does heat the living room well enough if its not too cold and I do love it when the fire is on . Can anyone tell me if they are indeed very expensive to run? At them moment its just used at Christmas time and it seems a such a waste.. its open to the room by the way not closed in..and has a a proper flu up the chimney

gatita

Hope you get a reply as I too have the same kind of fire................ I have it on during the day, and then the central heating for the rest of the house on timed in the evening. I am hoping to hear that it is cheaper to just have the fire on, rather than the central heating!!

moonrakerz

Depends entirely on the type/make/age of the fire.

I have a fire and gas fired warm air heating. I often use the fire on its own during the day to keep the lounge warm, I only put the central heating on when it is really cold and I want to heat the whole house - with warm air that doesn't take long.

I would just run a trial and make your own mind up. Read the meter, then run the fire for a decent period (8hrs?) then read the meter again, then you can work out the running costs. If the heat output is variable, try it both on min and max.
I did that and the gas fire is a much more economical way of heating IF I don't want the whole house heated - even the cat abandons the bedrooms for his place in front of the fire when it is on !

lemontart

I have Flame effect fire which I have serviced regularly ensure burning effieciently - no central heating but as fire in front from and my bedroom above the warmth also radiates up through chimney breast so if I leave my fitted warbrobe doors open in my room whilst fire on my bedroom is just right so saves on heating that room as well

tanith

moonrakerz wrote: »

Depends entirely on the type/make/age of the fire.

I have a fire and gas fired warm air heating. I often use the fire on its own during the day to keep the lounge warm, I only put the central heating on when it is really cold and I want to heat the whole house - with warm air that doesn't take long.

I would just run a trial and make your own mind up. Read the meter, then run the fire for a decent period (8hrs?) then read the meter again, then you can work out the running costs. If the heat output is variable, try it both on min and max.
I did that and the gas fire is a much more economical way of heating IF I don't want the whole house heated - even the cat abandons the bedrooms for his place in front of the fire when it is on !

If had that fire on for 8hrs OH would have a fit..:rotfl:I'd probably only put it on in the evenings and the heating for the whole house would be on at the same time.. so I just really want to know if it would use a lot of gas to have it on for a couple of hours.

EDIT: I didn't think flame effect fires generated much heat anyway.. am I wrong about that?

Premier_2

Flame effect fiores are more for decoration than space heating.

Although some may well through out a lot of heat, much is also wasted (probably up the chimney in your case), so not the most efficient form of heating ... but nice and cosy to sit by on a dark, cold winter's night.

tanith

Premier wrote: »

Flame effect fiores are more for decoration than space heating.

Although some may well through out a lot of heat, much is also wasted (probably up the chimney in your case), so not the most efficient form of heating ... but nice and cosy to sit by on a dark, cold winter's night.

Well yes I do know all that but thats no help thanks anyway.. I want to know are they expensive to run?

Premier_2

tanith wrote: »

Well yes I do know all that but thats no help thanks anyway.. I want to know are they expensive to run?

How do you define expensive?

If half or more of the heat is going up the chimney, so is the same proportion of your money spent on running the fire.

If you are asking for an exact figure in terms of pence per hour, you'll need to discover the consumption of the fire and multiply it by the appropriate unit charge of the gas.
The consumption figure is probably in the user manual and perhaps also marked somewhere on the fire.

tanith

Well is it going to cost as much as having the boiler going for instance? ( so doubling my gas bills) The boiler goes on and off so is not actually burning all the time whereas the fire will be burning gas the whole time its on.. There is no user manual and there is nothing marked on the fire itself.. I don't want an exact figure but someone who maybe has one who could give me an idea of whether it was costly to run..

John_3:16

I think you will find living flame fires are about 40/50% efficient with no glass front and 60/70% with a glass front eg you put in 100% fuel and get out the above percentage.

They usely put in about 4/5kw on full blast. That would be about 3/4 times cheaper than electric.

So with a non glass front fire you put 5kw in and get 2.5kw out in heat?

These are very rough calcs. If you check your bill I think it may say how much a KW you pay for gas?

shegar

Well I had a glass fronted 2 door villager gas fired stove installed last year it was brand new when put in ,you can have the flame as high or low as you want, we have GCH but of a night we use the stove . The size of the room is 14X 15 .

It keeps the room at 73 gegrees, with the room door shut so we are happy with the output, but like premier say some heat do go up the chimney......

I did ask on MSE forum last year about the running costs of the stove and I do believe it worked out at approx 18 pence per hour:)........that to us is fine.......I do like the real flame in a stove , it remind me of the days when I had a wood burner to look at, but without the mess and wood cutting, carting etc.............I dont have the manual close to hand at the moment but I do believe its output is 5.4KW......Hope that give you rough idea on your useage......if you use it a couple hours of a evening it wouldnt cost too much plus its nice to look at on a winters evening.......:D