TURN UP THE HEAT: FIREPLACES ARE GOING VENTLESS

Stacy Slinkard, heating and air-conditioning technician for Heise Heating & Cooling Inc. of rural Cape Girardeau, checked a burning furnace.

The necessity of heat was obvious last week as the overnight low temperatures dipped into the single digits for the first time this winter.

Carl Raines of Scott City was happy with his new ventless gas log fireplace. He lit it for the first time Jan. 3, just before single-digit temperatures hit the area.

While the thermostat for his central gas furnace was set on 67, it only ran twice during the coldest two days of the season with the new fireplace running on a medium setting.

"I think it will make a big difference on energy costs," Raines said.

Because the new fireplace runs on natural gas, he will always have heat in his house, even if the electric goes off and the furnace blower can't run.

"I liked the idea of having a fireplace," Raines said, "but I didn't want the hassle of cutting wood and cleaning up."

Raines saw the new type of fireplace two years ago during an exhibit at the Show Me Center. When Dave Blattner, owner of the Fireplace Center in Cape Girardeau told Raines the gas stove was ventless, he wanted to know how it worked.

The gas log fireplace has been installed flush with the inside wall in a new addition on Raines' double-wide modular home. A ground-to-eaves covering on the outside wall seals off the backside of the gas stove from the natural elements.

The insert cost about $900, Raines said. The entire set-up with labor was about $1,900, which included marble-like hearth and panels around the stove and a wooden mantle on top.

Raines and his wife, Connie, have lived in their home since 1974. He works on the dredge Potter for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and his wife works for Capital Bank in Cape Girardeau.

As a safety precaution for the new ventless stove, he installed a carbon monoxide alarm in the house. There are also four fire alarms in the house.

Someone else who likes her new ventless gas stove is Beverly Weakley of rural Marble Hill, a teleservice account manager in Cape Girardeau with Health Services Corporation of America.

She and her husband, Gordon, set up the stove in the living room of their log home on Christmas Eve.

"We love it," she said. "The room is real cozy. It looks like a real fire. People are really amazed that it looks so real."

Blattner, who has owned the Fireplace Center for 18 years, said about 75 percent of his sales are for gas stoves. The great majority of those are ventless because they're more efficient.

With a gas stove, there is less hassle than with a stove burning wood, wood pellets or other sources of fuel, Blattner said. In addition, gas can provide a more immediate fire than wood.

"People who can afford expensive homes are tired of the hassles of carrying in wood and getting rid of the ashes," Blattner said.

But for some people -- farmers or those raised in the country -- burning wood is about all that they will consider. They've grown up with it or they might have a ready source of firewood, Blattner said.

One of the first questions that Blattner asks potential customers is if they cut their own wood. If they don't, he usually recommends one of the new ventless gas stoves because it's so easy to have the look and feel of a fireplace in a home without some of its disadvantages.

The masonry and mantle around a fireplace may make it beautiful, Blattner said, but it's the stove insert that makes the fireplace efficient, especially while burning wood or wood pellets.

The insert is more efficient because it's airtight and will burn almost all of the wood. It also has baffles to capture the heat from the fire chamber and fans to circulate the warm air around the home.

Some of the newer wood stove inserts are becoming very efficient. They burn more of the flue gases, Blattner said, meaning very little heat is lost up the chimney.

For those who would like to burn wood with less of the mess, pellets may be the answer.

The wood pellets are produced from sawdust by a company called Lignetics near Doniphan. Users can carry a 40-pound plastic bag of pellets into their home and that's usually enough to run the stove for about two days.

There is very little dust and ash in a pellet stove. The pellets are augured into the fire chamber and any ash drops into a surrounding pan as the wood is burned. While the pellets are burning, some of the crackle associated with a wood fire can be heard.

"There seems to be a fascination with fire," Blattner said. "It's one of the few things that catches people's attention. It's something that intrigues people."

A fireplace can also increase the resale value of a home, said Blattner, who still likes to cut firewood even though the four fireplaces in his home have been changed over to burning gas.