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The Reasons Why Gas Fireplace Logs Heat Your Chimney Better Than
Your Room
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By Carl Herkes
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Frustrated with the lack of heat you get from your natural gasfireplace log set? Carl Herkes explains why gas fireplace logsare inefficient.
Natural gas is on the rise. It is predicted to double in costthis year. Are you afraid to use your gas fireplace because youknow those gas logs don't throw enough heat? Are you frustratedbecause the gas logs are downright ugly when they aren'tburning? And now you won't use them because you can't stand towaste the natural gas? Let's face it. Traditional gas fireplacelogs are inefficient. Let me explain why.
First, much of the gas burns behind the logs. You don't see mostof the flame and you don't feel the radiant heat from it. Inorder to see a good deal of flame, you must turn the gas muchhigher than just an idle. In doing so, you are burning more gasthan you should. This also presents an additional problem.By-products, mainly in the form of soot are produced. Not enoughoxygen can combine with the natural gas to completely burn itup. Remember the days when cars were not equipped with catalyticconverters? Remember driving down the road and smelling theexhaust of the cars around you? That is the smell of gasolinenot being completely burned. The catalytic converter solved thatproblem. It gets very hot and helps to burn any leftovergasoline before it exits your exhaust system. Fireplaces arelike cars without catalytic converters. Soot and otherby-products are produced when natural gas is not completelyburned.
Secondly, gas fireplace logs have some fill underneath them thatis supposed to look like ash from a wood burning fireplace. Thatfill substance is usually crushed lava rock. Lava rock neitherretains nor radiates heat. No doubt, you have seen countlessstyles of heaters on the market. Whether electric, natural gas,kerosene or propane, they all share a common feature (with theexception of a few radiator-style heaters). The heaters all havereflective surfaces around the heating element to better radiateheat into your room. Those heaters do not have a lava rocklining around the heating element. Manufacturers know that areflective surface is the best surface for throwing radiant heat.
Thirdly, the gas logs themselves do not help to drive radiantheat into the room. The logs do retain heat, but the surface ofthem (made to look like bark on a tree) is certainly notreflective. The surface of the logs is usually very rough andstarts getting covered with soot the first time they are used.The soot further inhibits the logs from radiating heat.
In summary, gas fireplace logs are sold because some peoplewould like to see a fire that mimics what a real wood fire lookslike. Often, manufacturers don't take into account thatconsumers are only getting half the benefit of having a fire ifit's only visual, but lacks the heat advantage.
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