What to do with a gas fireplace in an all electric home?

[wiglyworm]

I'm in the process of buying my first house. We got a really fantastic deal, and the living room has a nice fireplace. I thought this was a big bonus since the home is all electric and lighting a fire would definately ease our heating bill some. During the home inspection, the inspector noticed that the fireplace looked like it had hardly been used, and when he looked closer, he found the probable reason why: The fireplace looks to be a gas burning fireplace, he said the walls look like they're only 22 or 24 gauge steel, and that he didn't recomend building much of a fire at all in it.

I suspect the previous owners decided to install one on the cheap, and ended up with something basically worthless as a consequence. The real problem is that the house is all electric, and in fact there is no gas service anywhere in this particular corner of my county. The home inspector said we could probably get a large propane tank and use that, but installing something sizeable enough to have any decent sized fire sounds cost prohibitive.

So, this fireplace in the house I'll be buying is currently just taking up space. What can I do, if anything, to make it into something functional?

 

[beau5278]

It's probably functional as is,but you'll have to find out who made it and that it was installed correctly.As far as gas,if you find a company near you that sells LP,they can probably hook it up for you.My Mom has one in her basement,it's a zero clearance unvented unit and it works ok to heat the basement,she had a gas fireplace insert also but with LP getting as expensive as it has in the past couple of years,she pulled it out and installed a pellet stove this winter.