Gas Fireplace Benefits: Heat, Cost, Convenience

A gas fireplace gives you real heat at the push of a button, with no wood to carry and no ash to clean up. It costs more to install than an electric unit and less to run for the heat you get, and it asks far less of you than a wood fire. Those are the gas fireplace benefits in one line: heat, cost and convenience. The rest is the detail, for homes in Downers Grove and the western suburbs.

Heat you can feel and control

An open wood fireplace looks warm, but most of its heat goes up the chimney, and the draft pulls warm room air up with it. A gas fireplace works the other way round. Most modern units are direct-vent: a sealed glass front closes off the firebox, the fire draws its air from outside and sends its exhaust out through a pipe, and the heat comes into the room instead of up the flue. A mid-size unit puts out somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 BTU an hour, enough to carry a family room through an Illinois winter.

That heat is controllable. A thermostat holds the room at the temperature you set, a remote turns the flame up or down, and a blower moves the warm air out into the room. Because the fireplace heats the room you are sitting in, you can turn the furnace down for the rest of the house. Most gas fireplaces also keep working when the power goes out, on a millivolt ignition or a battery backup.

Cost, in plain words

Every job is measured and quoted in writing, so we do not quote prices here. But the shape of the costs is simple. To buy and install, a gas fireplace sits in the middle: more than an electric fireplace, because there is a gas line to run, a vent to route and usually a permit to pull, and a good deal less than building a new masonry fireplace and chimney from scratch.

To run, natural gas has long been the cheaper way to make a given amount of heat in this part of Illinois, so a gas fireplace on a winter evening usually costs less than an electric heater making the same warmth, and far more of its fuel becomes heat that stays in the room than with an open wood fire. Our guide to gas versus electric fireplaces goes through the running cost in detail. To keep, it wants one service visit a year, with no firewood to buy and no chimney to sweep.

Convenience: press a button and it is a fire

With a wood fire there is the kindling, the match, the coaxing and the ash pan the next morning. With a gas fireplace you press a button on the remote or flip a wall switch, and the fire is there. When you go to bed you turn it off, and it is out. Most units let you set the flame height and the heat output separately, so you can have a low flame on a mild evening and the full output in January.

Clean and safe

A gas fireplace makes no ash, no soot and no sparks. There is no creosote building up in a flue, so the chimney fire that every wood burner has to guard against is not a risk. A direct-vent unit is sealed off from the room, so it puts no smoke or fumes into the house.

The one thing to respect is the glass, which gets very hot in use. Modern gas fireplaces ship with a mesh safety barrier in front of the glass, and it should stay on; families with small children sometimes add a hearth gate as well. Beyond that, treat it like any other gas appliance: keep a working carbon monoxide detector on that floor, and have the burner, pilot, connections and vent looked at once a year.

Style, from linear to traditional

A traditional gas fireplace has an arched or rectangular opening, ceramic logs that glow at the tips, and a look that suits brick, stone and a wood mantel. A linear unit is a long, low window of flame, usually set in a plaster or tile wall with no mantel at all. In between there are see-through units, corner units, and small units for a bedroom, with logs, driftwood or fire glass inside. On our showroom floor in Downers Grove you will find gas fireplaces from makers such as Lopi, Majestic, Napoleon and DaVinci, so you can stand in front of a linear and a traditional unit side by side and see the size for yourself.

Already have a wood fireplace? Look at a gas insert

If there is a masonry fireplace in the room, you do not have to give it up to get the benefits above. A gas insert is a sealed gas firebox built to slide into the existing opening. It vents through a new flexible liner run up the chimney, and a trim panel closes the gap to the old brick, so the finished look is a built-in fireplace rather than a box in a hole.

The change in the room is the point. An open masonry fireplace cools the house as much as it warms it, because the draft carries warm air up the flue even when there is no fire. An insert seals that off: its glass front keeps the heat in the room, a blower pushes the warm air out, and when it is off, the chimney is no longer an open window to the sky. It is worth a look if the room feels chilly near the fireplace, or if the fireplace is mostly for show.

An insert needs a sound chimney, the new liner and a gas line to the firebox. We measure the opening first, because inserts come in set sizes, and most go in without any work on the walls. Inserts also come in electric, wood and pellet versions.

Gas fireplace benefits at a glance

What matters	Gas fireplace	Open wood fireplace	Electric fireplace
Heat into the room	Strong and controllable	Little; most goes up the chimney	Modest, like a space heater
Fuel and cleaning	Gas line; no ash	Firewood to stack and season; ash after every fire	A wall outlet; no ash
Venting	A direct-vent pipe or a chimney liner	A masonry chimney	None
Works in a power cut	Yes, on most units	Yes	No
Yearly upkeep	One service visit	Chimney sweeping and inspection	Dusting
Cost to install	In the middle	Highest if built new	Lowest
Cost to run	Lowest for the heat you get	Depends on the price of wood; most is wasted	Highest for the heat you get

Common questions

Do I need a chimney for a gas fireplace?

No. A direct-vent gas fireplace draws its air from outside and sends its exhaust out through a sealed pipe, which can run out through a side wall or up through the roof. A gas insert is the exception, because it reuses the existing chimney with a new liner.

Will a gas fireplace work when the power is out?

On most units, yes. A millivolt ignition needs no electricity, and newer electronic ignitions carry a battery backup. The blower and the remote stop until the power returns, but the fire and the heat carry on.

Can I convert my wood-burning fireplace to gas?

Yes, two ways. A gas insert turns the fireplace into a sealed, efficient heater. A vented gas log set keeps the open hearth and gives you the look of a wood fire at the flick of a switch, with less heat into the room.

Is a gas fireplace safe with children and pets?

Yes, with the same care you would give an oven. The glass gets very hot, so keep the mesh safety barrier in place, and consider a hearth gate for toddlers. There are no sparks and no embers, which is one of the reasons families choose gas over wood.

Talk it through in the showroom

A Fireplace Store and More is at 1202-B 75th Street in Downers Grove, open seven days. Bring a photo of the wall or the opening, or just the question. We size it, quote it in writing and install it with our own team. Book a showroom or in-home visit, ask for a written estimate, or call (630) 241-1919.