A -- Those two types of complete fireplace kits are your best options for someone in your situation. You can be sitting in front of a fire, with either an electric or a gelled-fuel fireplace, 15 minutes after taking it out of the box and plugging it in. Installing a wood-burning fireplace takes days or weeks because you will have to add a chimney or flue, and it's expensive.
The real flames from a gelled-fuel (renewable natural grape-alcohol base) model or the simulated flames from the new electric fireplaces are difficult to distinguish from a real wood fire. The mechanism in some of the electric fireplaces also creates a realistic log-crackling sound. For people who already have an existing fireplace, an electric log kit can be purchased separately and installed.
Since electric fireplaces plug into a standard wall outlet, they are limited to 1,500 watts of heat, as are most electric heaters. No heated air is drawn out of your house as with a standard fireplace, so no heat is wasted. The gelled-fuel fireplaces produce about 2,500 Btu of heat per hour and burn about four hours with a single 16-ounce can. A log set can burn just one or several cans simultaneously to vary the heat output and the appearance of the flames. If you choose to buy an entire fireplace kit, you will find the hand-finished real wood, marble, stone, etc., fireplace surrounds and mantels rival the best gas log fireplaces. Since high heat is not a factor, attractive bookcases and shelves can be built close to the opening.
What makes the electric fireplaces ideal is that you can use them year-round for the ambiance of a fire. The electronic controls and tiny motors used to create the realistic flames and sounds consume less than 200 watts. Using your electric fireplace with the heat turned off will barely increase the cooling load on your central air conditioner.
Gelled-fuel fireplaces should only be used during the winter: burning the fuel during the summer adds both heat and humidity to the indoor air. Although the fumes from burning grape-based gelled alcohol with ample combustion air are not harmful, they do add greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) to the environment.
As an engineer and former Star Wars toy designer for Kenner, I marvel at the simplicity of the methods used to produce the realistic-looking flames with electric logs. Many models allow you to adjust the appearance from relaxing, lazy, flickering flames to a raging fire. The heat output, when switched on, can be controlled independently of the flames' appearance.
One of the neatest designs is the Visiflame electric log. This design uses a smoked acrylic plastic movie-type screen located in the back of the fireplace behind the logs. Red and gold lights inside the logs create the appearance of embers and also reflect off foil ribbons onto the smoked movie-type screen.
The logs used in a gelled-fuel fireplace also look realistic. There is a special grate and burning chamber that holds the cans of fuel. This fuel chamber has an adjustable grate to control the rate of burn, size of the flames, and the heat output. The 24-inch-wide logs can hold up to six cans of gelled fuel for a maximum of 15,000 Btu of heat per hour.
Unlike vent-free natural gas fireplaces, there are no local codes banning gelled-fuel fireplaces. Pop the top off of the cans and place them into the burning chamber in the logs. The fuel lights easily with a match. To put the fire out, a special hook is used to slide a cover over the cans to extinguish them.