Choosing your Fireplace

A fireplace offers more than warmth; select with care and you’ll get a design feature too. Sadly it can be tough to make the right choice.

You don’t just need to choose between traditional and contemporary; there’s also the choice of whether to pick gas, electric or solid fuel.

Fires and stoves come in a bewildering choice of various colours and styles. Moreover there are options to be selected between surrounds, hearths and accessories.

Choosing the Right Fire

When choosing a new fire, the primary consideration will be anchored in form. Ultra modern or traditional?

After opting for your fireplace style, you need to choose your energy-type. For gas or solid fuel, the type of chimney in your home is important.

Chimney Variations

• Brick chimney

• Prefabricated Flue

• Pre-cast Flue

• No Chimney or Flue

Brick Chimney Features

• Chimney pot visible on roof

• External chimney stack

• Internal chimney breast

Fireplace Choices

• Solid fuel stoves and casts

• Any gas fire

• Any electric fire

Pre-fabricated Flue Features

• External metal flue pipe on roof

• False internal chimney breast

Fireplace Choices

• Multi-flue gas fires

• Selected gas fires (depending on depth of false chimney breast)

• Selected electric fires (depending on depth of false chimney breast)

Pre-cast flue Features

• Raised ridge tile on the roof

• Metal flue pipe on the roof

• No internal or external chimney breast

Fireplace Choices

• Multi-flue gas fires

• Selected gas fires (depending on depth of false chimney breast)

• Any electric fire

If you have no pre-existing chimney or flue you can take your choice of electric fires, or opt for a flueless gas fire (depending on room size).

Carbon Neutral Heating

Following on from current problems in Japan; lots of people are giving thought to fuel and the environment. Without a doubt the most straightforward carbon-neutral home-heating is a woodburning stove.





It is true burning wood gives off Carbon Dioxide (CO2); this is CO2 absorbed during the life of the tree, so no extra CO2 is discharged into the atmosphere. Ensure you burn wood from a sustainable source, and you will generate a closed carbon cycle; the result is carbon-neutral.

Climate Neutral Heating

For green heating:

• Choose your stove carefully

• Look for a stove that meets rigorous ecological standards

• Inspect the flue regularly

• Burn clean wood only

• Burn dry wood only (less than 20% moisture content)

• Ensure sufficient ventilation.

Can Woodburning Stoves be Dangerous

Woodburning stoves are up-to-the-minute but, are they hazardous?

The topical piece published in Chemical Research in Toxicology demonstrates that inhaling particulate matter from a wood burning stove is the same as inhaling car auto emissions.



Professor Steffen Loft of Copenhagen University comments that the tiny airborne particles of particulate matter found in wood-smoke are "small enough to be inhaled into the deepest part of the lungs," and "can certainly cause fatal heart or lung disease." also, Professor Loft claims there are links between wood smoke and other ailments, for instance asthma, bronchitis, and cancer.

In line with our bullet points above, Professor Loft recommends the following:

• Use dry wood

• Cut wood into small pieces

• Ensure a god flow of air to minimise emissions

A German study into the same issue in print December 2010, found similar conclusions.

Burnout for Woodburning Stoves?

So is this the end of woodburning stoves? No. The Solar Fuel Association commented that there is negligible chance of smoke venting into a house from a rightly fitted stove.



Masterfireplaces provides information and recommendations on the best modern fireplaces and presents information about Victorian Fireplaces and Brick Fireplaces.