Should I get a gas fireplace insert?

Yes, I would think it would increase the value of the house. Liners are critical.

You can get an insert with a (don't know the right terminology) fan which circulates the heat outward into the room - or not. Obviously having one will help heat your home. I had one installed several years ago. You can turn the fan on when you want it circulating.

But with the cost of oil and gas these days, is it wise? Maybe look into electric for one of your fireplaces. Then you likely (not really sure) wouldn't need to address the flue issue.

I tore the fireplace out and had the area enlarged to put a free standing gas stove in. At least when the power goes out, I have heat. My gas price isn't that bad. I paid $200 for the brick work and about $1500 for the stove. It has a fan and a remote. My electric bill is much higher than the gas bill.

Edit: I had the flue closed up because the gas stove is hooked to the gas line on the side.

Our gas fireplace is great for those chilly spring mornings/evenings when you don't want to turn the heat on because it's going to get warm out but your ass is freezing off at the moment.

I run it for 20-30minutes. It heats the living room only and Adriana plays in that room and I can watch tv or play with her and we're a-ok.

As for heating the whole house or lower level or a large area, with gas prices I wouldn't try it.

Yeah, we really don't need the heat as much as we need to do something about the chimney's and fireplaces. We have problems with animals and, of course, we lose heat up them. This would be the first step toward having working fireplaces in the house. Do we NEED working fireplaces? Probably not but they sure would be nice. I just wish it cost about half what it does. I could just get them sealed off and call it a day.

I had all mine sealed off.

Does your gas stove vent up through the chimney or is it not vented?

It vents up through the flue and out the back. Right above where it is vented is where the flue is boarded. I would guess it goes up the flue about 3 feet.

I'm definitely just going to seal off one of them. It's too small for an insert (it was an old coal burner) and it's very pretty so I think I'll just put some candles in there and use it as a purely decorative feature. That leaves two others -- one in the dining room and one in the living room. The one in the dining room has birds in it right now, but I was thinking to just seal that one off until we have money to do something with it. The one in the living room is the one I want to put the insert in and I think that's the place that most people expect to have a fireplace. We're not planning on selling any time soon, but you never know in this economy when you might be forced to and I'm wondering if it would be a selling point.

Of course it would be a selling feature. It's an addition, a working fireplace. People love fireplaces. Anything you can add would be good for sales. They don't have to use it but it's there if they want it.

My other fireplaces I left as is except to board them off. This is a picture of the working one:

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Looks like I need to dust

That's really nice. I saw some like that in some of the brochures and asked the guy about it but he says my opening is too small. It's hard to imagine that the labor to make it bigger could be much worse than the labor to install the gas insert but what do I know.

Thank you. Nothing better than getting a sleeping bag out for myself, the dog and cat when the power is out.

The original opening was smaller, but the guy who did the brick work made it larger.

The one he quoted me on was this one:

That is really nice looking. Mine was cheaper probably because I just wanted something simple that would do the job. I also added ceiling fans which helps push the heat down in the room.

I thought you lived in Hotlanta, FreeDuck.

I do. But we have cold winters too. Well, cold by my standards (raised in Florida).