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( Where I live I noticed house barely ever have wood fireplaces anymore. You see alot my natural gas firplaces instead. Why is this?)
Well if a house is being built with the possible intent of renting it out, you don't want a wood stove in it. Raises the landlords insurance, and people are in general stupid and break things. Like splitting wood on the tile floor, or throwing it in the front door and putting holes in the wall.
As for houses that are just built for re-sale a lot of people really don't want wood heat. I lived with nothing but wood heat for 15 years.... I still miss it at times, but it is a lot of work, and its not "free" heat like everyone seems to think. Im still all for having combo wood & gas heat or something along those lines. Gives you a backup in case utilities break. But your average person really doesn't think about that.
Also, if your in a much more urban environment you don't have access to the firewood. Or even if you live in a rural area, if you don't have access to tree to cut down for firewood from either your property or someone else - its spending to buy firewood. At that point you might as well just stick with natural gas.
it seems to come down to 4 reasons, cleanliness, efficiency and safety and cost. If you were to want or need to heat with wood there are much more efficient ways to heat with wood such as furnaces (indoor or outdoor) and wood stoves. Wood is also inherently dirty and can be a big pain if you have carpet anywhere near the fire place. Safety and cost can almost be lumped together as if I remember correctly you pay more in insurance for a home with a wood fireplace because of the risk of chimney fire due to creosote buildup in your chimney as well as sparks spitting and lighting something else on fire. One other cost is that of the wood; if you are willing to work for it it can be found cheaply or for free if you own a chain saw and a trailer, but can get to be quite expensive if you do not do the work yourself.
I was thinking the same thing - Laziness. The house we are moving into has a oil/wood furnace (as its a 120 year old farhouse) so the discussion of wood heating has come up alot around here. I wish there was more wood fireplaces around here, they are a wonderful way to help heat the house, very romantic and you can even roast marshmallows on them! : )
Interesting, its not like that where i live. Wood burning fireplaces are still very popular and are in almost all new homes and even in mobile homes around here. I think the reasoning might be because people are lazy though...building a fire with wood takes a bit of work and you also have to acquire the wood either yourself or purchase it.
Because wood fire places are to hard to keep clean, and it takes more energy to heat up the room than a gas one. It comes down to a efficiency contest, and the gas won. However, personally I like wood fire places better.
Must because it takes more time or something? I personally think it would be better because that way we would waste less electricity and our house would be warmed like the old days :)
Most of the homes here are heated with a woodstove - not a fireplace, but still wood burning heat.
They're not very economical in most places, Oil and electric are.
