thegreatfireplace.com

Gas fireplaces and ventless natural gas fireplaces are delightful. You’re probably tired of lugging in those messy pieces of firewood, tending the fire and frustrated when your wood supply dwindles.

If you are familiar with the gas logs of 20 to 25 years ago, don’t quit reading just yet. Those older logs were very fake. The flames were not realistic and the logs themselves just didn’t look right.

Today, there is a good chance that if you saw a high quality set of gas logs actually burning, you would very likely think they are real. Certain types of gas logs (vented) come with vermiculite and glass wool. When the gas flames lick around these items, they look exactly like glowing embers in a real wood fire. Years ago, there was only one type of gas log, that being the vented type. These are still made today. However, energy conservation trends produced gas appliances that are vent free. This technology found its way into the U.S. gas log market not too long ago. The technology actually started in Europe many years ago.

The vented logs are those that require a working chimney. They produce vast amounts of heat (some up to 90,000 BTU’s per hour.). But, since you must open the fireplace damper as if burning a wood fire, most of this heat escapes up the chimney (85 to 90 percent!).

Vented gas logs also produce massive amounts of carbon monoxide, a deadly, toxic gas. This carbon monoxide results from the low tech burner that is used to combust the gas. In most cases, the gas simply escapes from a simple pipe that has holes drilled into it. This pipe is usually covered with silica sand. The gas filters through the sand so that the entire area under the gas log set appears to be on fire.