Installing a fire. Also ... gas -vs- electric -vs- coal/wood?

Nine_Lives

Ok so here's the situation:

We currently have a fire, which is a coal & wood fire. It's quite old. I don't know how old, but it's a minimum of 26 years old as that's how long we've been in this house. It's getting difficult to get parts for the fire too (we need a new throat plate but can't find anywhere doing one for us).

My mum was given a quote to have a new fire fitted .... £2000. I think our current chimney is just straight with no bending off.

She was told that these new fires don't need the same maintenance - they don't need cleaning out every day (ours does). They don't need coal (ours does). There were a few other things which i forget.


I'm wondering...

How the heat output between
* coal/wood fire
* electric fire
* gas fire

compares.

As well as the comparison of the running costs between the 3.

We only really use our coal fire in the depths of winter. During summer it wont get used.
So let's assume (i don't know if this is right or not) a wood fire is cheaper than gas/electric... if a £2000 installation means we'd need to run our wood fire for 30 years before we'd break even -vs- gas or electric, then it'd be sort of pointless.

Sorry if i'm not making much sense. :rotfl:I'm just wondering how the 3 compare with each other.

My only experience of an electric "fire" is those halogen 1200w heaters & that would take some time to heat the room up, PLUS the heat output is quite poor.

My only experience of gas fires is my nans, or the old small calor gas fire we used to have, which both stink. Plus the gas gives my gf terrible headaches.

Some feedback would be appreciated. Thanks. And sorry for the confused ramblings

Jonesya

Typical electric fires don't go above 3kW (limited by 13A plug), you see gas fires from 3kW upto 5kW or more, solid fuel appliances even higher.

There are some very efficient flame effect gas fires available now, efficiencies of up to 89% which makes for low running costs.

Leif

What do you mean when you say it is hard to find parts for your coal and wood fire? A fireplace consists of a fire back and rubble in an opening, with a chimney. Do you mean a stove?

An electric fire would be the easiest to install, and inexpensive, but running costs of electric are at least twice that of gas. Gas might cost more to install, due to the gas line, but it is cheap to run. A stove is expensive to install, due to the cost of lining the chimney, and the liner is said to last ~25 years. Installation and lining costs £600+, and I had quotes for £1500. Add on the stove, and the hearth (you need a hearth due to regs). So I guess cost wise gas is best. But I like a real fire, and I have access to some wood. If you have access to lots of wood then it can be a good idea. And there is the emotional side of a real fire.

Nine_Lives

What i mean by hard to find parts is this:

A few years ago, we needed to buy a new throat plate. Went out to a place, bought one & came home.
We need to buy a new throat plate (as described here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3776107) but they're difficult to get hold of. The place we went to last time round no longer exists.

The fire looks very SIMILAR (but not exact) to:




Sits in the living room - fireplace, mantlepiece, all that.

My mum prefers a wood/coal burner, but i was just wondering about the cost & heat output side of things.
The fire we currently have gets really rip roaring. You can't control the heat at all (other than shut the door), but apparently on these new fires you can control the heat. On the fire we've got, a bit of coal & wood, door shut, bottom hatch open & it gets blazing!! We used to have it heating our water & when you'd run a bath the water would be scalding hot.
Twas good.
Wood isn't a problem for the time being. We have a connection to a company who often fell trees, so for years we've got our wood for free.

I was surprised when i saw the price of wood/logs. Having only ever gotten it for free, i didn't have a clue, but where i work, we sell them for about £50 per bulk bag (or jumbo bag, ton bag, whatever you wish to call it).

rustyboy21

I think you are being quoted the £2k mark as it looks like an old parkray you have installed at present.
They were like an old type stove, so now you would possibly need a liner fitted and plates etc.

Looking at the costings for a fire, gas will be the cheapest to run, if you have to buy your solid fuel/logs. There is a thread on here stating this.

Electric will be the cheapest to fit, but you won't get anymore than 2 kw out of it, even less, if you don't seal up the flue.

Gas will be dearer to fit then electric, but not as dear as solid fuel, and will be cheaper to run than them both, especially if you go for something like an HE product like this.
http://www.valor.co.uk/1901.htm
They will give you 4kw convected heat at low running costs, if your installer fits it correctly ( fits restrictor plate, as supplied )

All in all, gas will be the better option, fully controlable, no cleaning out, cheaper running costs and still gives a great flame picture.

But I am a bit bias, I am a gas/electric fire retailer ! lol

Just a thought..... I think you may need to do a little bit of alteration to your marble back panel. I think the opening for the fire will be too big for either gas or electric, looks like approx 18'' wide. It is failry simple wont cost much more than £100. You will need to put some 'slips' of marble on top of the existing back panel to reduce the opening to 16.5'' wide, so the fire can seal ok.