Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 2Mar 11, 2021 9:47 am were building a house where we have a dividing wall between two living areas. That wall has a two way fire place installed and the dividing wall is stone all the way up to a 9/10ft raked ceiling. Its a major feature of the living areas. The house without it would be pedestrian. Even with it off, its a significant aesthetic feature. Id not build this house without it. However if it was just a fire place in the wall of a room, I'd probs give it a miss to save on costs. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 3Mar 11, 2021 2:52 pm if you mean wood burning that gets tiring after a while if that is to be your only gas appliance then it would be costly to have sitting there 9 months per year i plan on having ducted heating and a gas fireplace in my next build just for the aesthetics Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 5Mar 12, 2021 1:59 pm Tacking onto this...does anybody have an electric fireplace and has a positive opinion on them? We are planning our build which has a gas feature fireplace in a period style home. Issue is this is the only gas appliance as we'd like to go electric with solar as much as possible. But I just can't get my head around having an electric fireplace...is it just like a tv screen with a built in heater? Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 6Mar 16, 2021 3:23 pm We tossed this up too but after seeing a few electric fires which looked pretty ordinary we opted for the gas instead. We are having gas for our cooktop and a gas boosted solar HWC as well so unlike you, we are having more than one appliance. Stewie Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 7Mar 16, 2021 4:57 pm We installed a gas fireplace in our last build and have just installed another in our recent build because we loved it so much, our recent build is all electric except for the fireplace and BBQ (we do not have natural gas in our recent build, so its bottled gas but still worth it! Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 8Mar 16, 2021 5:19 pm We have an 120ish year old house with a dominating wood burning, brick, open fireplace. Yes it is hard work to split the wood but it is the centrepiece of two rooms. We installed ducted last year so we don’t need to use it but we still light it on weekends in winter. As far as pollution goes I get the comments made but wood is a renewable resource and I like the smell. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 9Mar 16, 2021 5:22 pm forrestmount We have an 120ish year old house with a dominating wood burning, brick, open fireplace. Yes it is hard work to split the wood but it is the centrepiece of two rooms. We installed ducted last year so we don’t need to use it but we still light it on weekends in winter. As far as pollution goes I get the comments made but wood is a renewable resource and I like the smell. Pro Wood burning is not renewable. That's a myth. Its not carbon neutral as the time and energy to grow the trees takes much longer to offset the carbon wood burning causes. Wood burning also causes environmental stress. If your a cigarette smoker it explains why you like the smell. But wood smoke is even more toxic and worse for health and effects neighbours, pets etc. So not very considerate. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 10Mar 16, 2021 6:02 pm I can plant a tree to renew wood. I don’t think that’s a myth. I have done it a few times now . Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 13Mar 16, 2021 7:32 pm I understand no everyone shares the same opinions, Our neighbours have asked often asked us to light the fire. None of us smoke so I am not sure how you drew these conclusions and decided I was inconsiderate and why smoking cigarettes is relevant..... Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 14Mar 16, 2021 10:30 pm I also l i ke the smell of woodfire, it's an evocative smell. smells nothing like cigarettes, not even close. While you're having a whinge about someone else's choices being inconsiderate I'd like to take the opportunity to ask you a few pointed questions about your own environmental impacts: Do you drive a car? Is the public transport you use carbon neutral? Have you flown anywhere, ever? Is the energy you use for everything you do come from renewable sources? Do you only grow and eat your own food? Is the produce you supplement with local and seasonal? Every buy products in packaging? Do you consume meat? Are the clothes you wear made from sustainably sourced materials and not manufactured in countries where cheap labour is exploited? Do you live in a home that is built from sustainable and ethically sourced materials? Do you drink alcohol? Did you make it yourself? Was the fermenting vessel plastic or a hollowed out gourd? Is the phone in your pocket made from ethically sourced and sustainable materials? What about the rare earth minerals in it? Did you investigate the manufacturers supply chain before you bought it? Have you got children? Because introducing another human onto this plantet is the single most significant contribution to carbon emisions you can make as another human being. How inconsiderate is THAT!? How man plastic things do you own? Any? Of course you do, because you're an inconsiderate planet raper, you cheeky scoundrel. I could litterally go on and i can guarantee you that the soap box you're preaching from is flimsy. We live in a first world country that owes a lot of its advances and luxuries to activities that have exploited people and the earth. Enjoying a woodfire is litterally not a problem, nor is the "pollution" from it in the grand scheme of things. I'd take a look at how much energy is being wasted in mining bitcoin if you'd like to see a real travesty. If I lived next door to you I'd light a fire every day just to pss you off lol Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 16Apr 26, 2021 10:22 pm Wood fires are bad in urban areas as the smoke is terrible for human health and your neighbours get to enjoy this. Heat can easily be achieved with efficient split systems these days. If you're rural then all good if that's your thing. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 17Apr 26, 2021 10:36 pm stonesthrow Wood fires are bad in urban areas as the smoke is terrible for human health and your neighbours get to enjoy this. Heat can easily be achieved with efficient split systems these days. If you're rural then all good if that's your thing. You know what else is bad in urban areas? Factories, cars, smokers, humans in general. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 18Apr 26, 2021 10:47 pm Good for you for then for choosing to make other peoples' health worse when you don't have to. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 19Apr 26, 2021 11:05 pm stonesthrow Good for you for then for choosing to make other peoples' health worse when you don't have to. Do you drive a car? Use aviation? Ffs read my earlier post in this thread. p By virtue of you being Alive you are contributing to poor health outcomes of those around you. If you've had kids, you've furthered your carbon footprint in unimaginable ways. So unless you are litterally offsetting every single thing you do in life (read:impossible) you can get off your soapbox. Just because you're not putting smoke into the air from a fire doesn't mean you're not part of a bigger problem. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Fireplace - yay or nay 20Apr 26, 2021 11:48 pm Just because everyone has a carbon footprint/pollutes to some degree, doesn't mean you should go and make it worse than you have to. That argument has never made sense. I actually love fire places and have one in my current rental. If I was in the country I'd probably put one in. As I'm building new in an urban area, I've got a choice of easily putting in a small split system to warm (and cool) myself and make the air much cleaner for all my surrounding neighbours. I'm still warm?? It's a cost effective alternative. It's such a minute sacrifice to ensure that I'm not decreasing my neighbours' health both in the short and long term. Hi all, My first post, we are building a house and can’t decide the layout of the lounge room. We have a large N/W facing window and are wanting to have a wood slow… 0 13728 No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. I’m not sure what was removed, as it was done quite some time ago - well before what I can see with photos online… 2 11588 I would probably render it and then paint it as per your other advice, or gyrpock over the top. 1 3340 |