Should You Have An Ethanol Fireplace In Your Space?

An ethanol fireplace is a great option for modern homeowners. Ethanol fireplaces are primarily used to set the mood and create a striking visual addition to a room. They provide a baseline level of heating, but are typically less productive than a traditional wood-burning, gas-powered, or electric fireplace. The ethanol fireplace is an iconic visual addition and makes for a wonderful centerpiece in a modern living room or elsewhere in the home.

Choosing an ethanol fireplace for your property can elevate the visual aesthetic and ambiance of the space immensely, notes A Fire Design. These types of fires are available in many different styles and designs. Moreover, adding an ethanol fireplace to your wall or as a centered item in the room is much easier than installing other traditional heat sources

However, ethanol fireplaces aren't for everyone, and there are some major factors to consider before installing this type of heating element in your home. But, for those who want the iconic visual dance of an open fire, ethanol may be the answer you have been looking for.

One of the first things to keep in mind when considering an ethanol fireplace is the fact that ethanol is environmentally friendly, whereas many other fuel sources for heating the home are not. The U.S. Department of Energy notes that ethanol can be produced via a number of different methods, with all of them involving the use of plant products as the primary ingredient. Ethanol in the United States is produced from excess feedstocks like corn. Elsewhere, other sugars and starch-based ethanol formulas make use of alternative resources, however, the end result produces a fuel source with equal potency regardless of the input product. This is similar to the way that vodka and whiskey are the resulting product of two different alcohol manufacturing processes, but each alcoholic liquid will contain roughly the same volume of alcohol, and create the same end result when consumed.

Ethanol is also used in the production of gasoline today. In the United States, any time you fill up your car you are purchasing a blend of 90% petroleum and 10% ethanol. Because ethanol is produced through a natural process rather than the extraction of mineral resources, making ethanol a far more environmentally friendly option than many alternatives that you could use to heat your home.

However, it should be noted that an ethanol fireplace will not produce as much heat as a wood-burning stove or any other type of fire, explains Green Lab Shop. The ethanol creates a dancing flame that traverses the area inside the unit. The result is a wonderfully lively piece of performance art. However, an ethanol fireplace can lack the extensive heat generation properties that many people may be looking for. An ethanol fireplace might not be right for your home if you are seeking to use the fireplace primarily as a heat source or to replace central heating, electric heaters, or other elements that regulate the temperature during the coldest months of the year.

However, an ethanol fireplace can be a great supplement to an existing strategy for heating the home. In a smaller room and in coordination with other approaches to heat generation, an ethanol fireplace can give you a unique centerpiece to gather around and add ambiance.

Ethanol fireplaces operate without the use of a direct connection to an electrical outlet or to your home's gas line. This makes ethanol fireplaces a great resource for homeowners who are at risk of power outages during severe storms. For instance, when gas lines in Texas froze in the winter of 2021, many homes lost the ability to heat themselves, according to Energy Research & Social Science. Families had to make do with whatever they could scrounge up during this challenging time. Makeshift heating solutions were commonplace among homeowners. In the aftermath, an uptick in YouTube and other online resources showing homeowners how to create basic heating elements from Crisco and other household items could be found (via Riverside Homestead Life.)

While an ethanol fireplace won't provide the same level of heat production that electric heating or a wood stove will create, there's no denying that an ethanol fireplace would have been an effective solution for families that found themselves out of power and out of options for generating heat.

Another thing to keep in mind about the ethanol fireplace is that although they don't require a hook up of electricity or gas to continue functioning, you will need to maintain a supply of ethanol. This means that you'll need to keep careful track of how much ethanol you've used and how much you have left at any given point in time. In the same way that an outdoor grill or firepit powered by propane will occasionally need a new tank to continue functioning, your ethanol fireplace will require consistent sourcing of fuel, explains Modern Blaze.

It's also important to think about where you'll get ethanol fuel from. In certain communities where heating during the winter isn't really a problem, it may be harder to come by this essential element than in other parts of the country. Before installing an ethanol fireplace at your home, make sure that this resource can be found at a price that's reasonable to you. In all likelihood, this won't be much of an issue. However, finding out that you'll need to buy fuel online while potentially incurring expensive delivery charges after you've already installed an ethanol fireplace could be a severe disappointment.

Enough good things can't be said about the visual brilliance of an ethanol fireplace. This type of fireplace creates an enchanting visual addition to your home and can drastically alter the aesthetic of any room that the unit is added. Ethanol fireplaces have become a luxury addition to the modern home, according to Bio Fires. An ethanol fireplace is easier to use and requires less cleanup than a traditional wood-burning stove or fireplace. This makes it something that can be turned on with ease and simply powered off when the evening wraps up.

Whether you are thinking of a wall-mounted unit that looks similar to a coal or wood-powered fireplace, or one that will sit centrally in a room and have seating placed around it, the ethanol fireplace is a game changer when it comes to decoration and the landscape of home luxury.