Advice Needed - Gas vs Pellet Insert

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brunof399

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Dec 1, 2012
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Hi All,

I am looking to add an insert into one of my fireplaces for supplemental heat. We just bought the home and it is apparent that this particular fireplace used to have a gas insert. My question is, should I just put a gas insert back in there or go with a pellet stove?

In a separate fireplace, we have a gas insert but it does not seem to put out that much heat while my brother's pellet stove puts out a ton of heat. Is anyone aware if gas inserts are just for cosmetics? BTW, we live in Massachusetts if that make any difference and the area to heat is ~2000 sqft. Thanks in advance for any replies!
 
I have both, propain fire place (hate it) pellet stove (love it). If you have natural gas it may better to stick with gas. If you have propane yank it and go pellet.I have had the pellet stove going on 3 years now. Its certainly more work than gas but satisfying work.........saves money. I finally convinced my wife to finally replace our insert since we haven't used it in years.
 
A natural gas heat appliance of any kind is probably going to be way cheaper than any other at today's fuel prices.
 
brunof399 said:
Hi All,

I am looking to add an insert into one of my fireplaces for supplemental heat. We just bought the home and it is apparent that this particular fireplace used to have a gas insert. My question is, should I just put a gas insert back in there or go with a pellet stove?

If the fireplace is plumbed for gas, I'd lean towards putting another insert in there. Natural Gas is the cheapest heat you can get, unless you're equipped to go out & cut trees down, trim the branches & split & stack the firewood. Measure the height, width & depth of your fireplace opening & talk to your local hearth shop.

In a separate fireplace, we have a gas insert but it does not seem to put out that much heat while my brother's pellet stove puts out a ton of heat. Is anyone aware if gas inserts are just for cosmetics?

Generally speaking, gas fire place inserts are space heaters. They're designed to heat the room that they're installed in. How big IS that room? Maybe you need to get it serviced. Do you know the manufacturer & model of the one you have? That will help us figure out if it's correctly sized.

BTW, we live in Massachusetts if that make any difference and the area to heat is ~2000 sqft. Thanks in advance for any replies!
Click to expand...
 
Wachusett said:
A natural gas heat appliance of any kind is probably going to be way cheaper than any other at today's fuel prices.
Click to expand...

I agree and natural gas should remain relatively cheap in the near future however I do like having an alternate heat source.
 
If it is a natural gas 'INSERT' then definitely stick with it. If it is gas logs in a fireplace with a chimney, then yank that baby outta there! You're suck heat out of your house.
 
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Definitely gas....I have rental property with a freestanding vent free "woodstove" natural gas heater and if the power goes out it will heat my house.....lights with an ignitor like a gas grill.
Its an investment but buy the proper insert and you will be more than happy. I burn 2 pellet stoves only because we cannot get natural gas... 4 tanks of oil per year(heats hot water too)@ $1100 a tank....the 4 ton I burn is a considerable savings!!
 
I have natural gas heat (furnace). I replaced my gas fireplace insert with a pellet insert. It is cheaper for us to "space" heat the living area with pellets compared to using the furnace to try to heat the whole house up to the 78F that my wife likes:eek:. My furnace would be running practically non-stop to get the house up to that temp and would cost more than what I spend in pellets to get the downstairs to 78F. But, the pellet stove requires dedication (cleaning, maintenance, getting pellets). If I had it to do over again, I would be on the fence as to whether to go with natural gas insert or pellet. I like having diverse heating fuels though. If natural gas does skyrocket, hopefully pellets will not. Like most things in life, natural gas will not always be so cheap. As more and more people get it because it's cheap, the demand will someday get high enough that the prices will go up and suddenly everyone will be stuck with those high prices unless they have an alternative. Oh yeah, my gas insert was for looks only, it didn't put out any heat...that's why I replaced it.
 
Roughly speaking the cost would be close to the same. If you are looking at BTUs and both are close or the same (lets say 40,000 BTUs) and both are the same in efficiency (lets say 80% efficient), its going to break down to personal preference as both will do what you would like them to do. The maintenance on the gas unit would be to maybe clean the glass and logs once or twice a year as opposed to weekly cleanings on the pellet insert. One more thing to consider is the gas unit does not require electricity to burn so you will have radiant heat, obviously the blower will not work without electricity. Good luck and let us pellet heads know what you decide.
 
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