Convert Your Wood-Burning Fireplace to an Ethanol-Burning Fireplace

Copyright (c) 2009 Wes Fernley

If you have a fireplace, how about converting it to an ethanol burner? Even if you have a firepit outdoors, you can use ethanol as your source of heat.

There has been a drive in recent years to find more environmentally friendly fuels and ones available from sustainable sources, and the talk has eventually come around to the amount of pollution we create when we burn wood in our fireplaces or in our outdoor fireplaces or fire pits. What an idea! Ethanol is certainly a better alternative than natural gas, electricity, or propane for your fireplace. Gas logs and electric fireplaces have become increasingly popular in recent years for obvious reasons. People love their fireplaces and don't want to give them up, but they want to shift away from the burning of wood.

In the first place, a wood fire is dirty. It's almost impossible to avoid a mess around the fireplace that has to be cleaned up every time we use it, not to mention all the smoke and soot. We are told that it's wise to have it cleaned every year before we use it. If we clean it ourselves, we look like a chimney sweep with soot from top to toe, and that stuff is hard to wash away. On the other hand, if we hire a chimney sweep, it costs an arm and a leg even if we can find one.

So maybe the time has come to get real. Say you decide to give up on the wood-burning fireplace, but you want to continue to use it, especially on cold, wintry days. Sitting by the fire and reading is a special pleasure. Inviting friends in for an evening and warming the event both physically and psychologically with a fire in the fireplace adds so much to the pleasure of good friends and good food.

So what are the options?

Gas-burning fireplace insert. These can be obtained with "logs" that look real and the flame looks like the real thing. This is about as close as you can get to the real thing. If you have a fireplace, you can use that vent to keep the fumes out of the house. You can purchase a propane tank and burn propane gas. These are usually buried underground so that only you know that your fireplace is not a real wood-burning one. However, you can also use natural gas. You will need to hire a professional to do the installation, of course, but you'll pay for the fuel when you pay your regular gas bill.

A more environmentally friendly option is the ethanol fireplace. The fuel is liquid, and you can buy it on a subscription so it will be delivered to you at whatever intervals you request. It is typically sold by the one-liter bottle. You'll have the blessings of a fireplace without the mess of a wood fire and without the environmental compromise necessitated by a gas fire. Many dealers are selling ethanol fireplaces. Just get online and google "ethanol fireplace" and you'll be surprised at how many hits you get.