Fireplaces – this time it’s personal. About a romance and homeliness of an open fire.

Fireplaces – this time it’s personal 

My partner, bless her, is always going on about the romance and homeliness of an open fire. We don’t have one, you see. What we do have is a gas fire that is fed by a pair of unsightly orange bottles that look like two unexploded 500lb bombs at the side of the house. We live in Northern Ireland. Mains gas is still a novelty and although it is slowly creeping out around the country, the first mains to be laid serviced the wealthy metropolitan areas, not out here in the wilds. Like most people around here, we rely on kerosene to fuel our central heating. When the wind is howling off the North Atlantic (next landfall North is Iceland!), you need it too. 

Her yearning for the open fire is based, I suppose, on memories of her Irish childhood, with the fire glowing peacefully in the grate, dogs lying comatose in front of it, the sweet pungency of turf smoke scenting the air. What she might have forgotten is that someone had to clean that fire out and lug buckets of filthy ash outside to be disposed of. Or that someone had to stagger in with a bucket of turf or coal and keep the blessed thing going. When you could get it going, that is. 

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Nonetheless, I understand her longing for a real flame, particularly now that we’re properly into winter (for those who don’t know it, the Northern Ireland calendar runs January, February, March, March, March, April, September, October, October, November, November, December …) and those longer nights are a bit nippy. The fireplace has always been the centre of the home, as I have pointed out in previous blogs, and she’s quite right to hanker after that special ambience and cosiness a real fire brings. Maybe she’s a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, who maintained strong view about the role of the hearth in the family home. 

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Ever since those earliest hearths, those first controlled flames that brought comfort to our ancestors, upkeep of the fireplace has been an important part of the domestic routine. Not just the gathering of combustible materials but keeping the fireplace clean and free of obstructions to maximise its effects. The benefits of the fireplace were obvious. The downside was the upkeep. As human beings congregated in towns and cities, the combined outpourings of so many domestic and industrial cities became a hazard in itself. But there was no alternative cleaning out the fire and lugging the ash out for disposal. It was a necessary evil. Unless you lived in Downton Abbey, of course, and had the downstairs staff attend to it while you shot some peasants. I mean pheasants. 

Well, joy of joys, there is a way to enjoy all the physical and spiritual comfort a real flame affords without the endless burden of fetching and cleaning. A Bio Fire gives you all the advantages without the mess and bother. Styles to match your living space décor, portable or permanent and no fuss. What could be nicer? 

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Is life really a gas? A story behind a gas fireplace.

Is life really a gas?

So, you're sold on the idea of a real fire adding that gorgeous homely warmth and ambience to your room. You like the idea of having a gas fire because you only want to pay for the fuel that you actually use and you like the idea that gas burns with a lovely real flame. There is also something traditional about gas: it's the clean, modern successor of messy open fires, gas is more or less a national industry and it is piped directly into your house via some magic, invisible means that you don't have to worry about. All things considered, a gas fire seems like one solution to your heating needs.

Is it though? Let's consider the issues. In terms of supply, is gas even available as an option? If you live in mainland Great Britain, there would probably not be a problem in having gas piped to your house. If you live in Northern Ireland, however, mains gas is a relatively new phenomenon. If you are not on the gas main, do you want to have brightly coloured gas canisters standing at the side of your house? These are things to think about. 

Pictures source: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2499955

Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_meter

OK, so you are on the gas main. Has there been a day recently when you haven't seen a television advertisement for a website that urges you to compare your home energy outgoings? How do you choose a supplier? Despite the Regulator's efforts, there remains a bewildering array of providers and tariffs to choose from ... 

By far the biggest challenge, however, remains that a gas fire requires you have a fireplace to accommodate the fire. This also means that you need a flue to take away the results of the combustion efficiently and safely, which would probably need to feed into an external wall chimney. Your fireplace will also need an electricity supply. Even when you have this infrastructure in place, you would need to have your fire fitted by a registered fitter and properly serviced every twelve months. So you are probably going to need the services of a builder and a gas fitter to get your fireplace sorted out.


Sounds like a lot of hassle, right? Well, the good news is that if you want your living space to benefit from the warmth and homeliness of a real flame, there is an alternative. A Bio Ethanol Fire. The advantages are immediately apparent. Firstly, you can put one wherever you like: free-standing on a flat surface or wall-mounted. You can also fit one into your existing empty fireplace without the need for any alteration. You can even have a table-top Bio Fire, so there are no flues or chimneys to open up and maintain. Bio Fires come in a stunning array of styles, both modern and traditional, so you won't have any difficulty in finding one that complements your existing décor. You buy fuel – an organic, environmentally-friendly ethanol fuel – as you need it, so you don't have to have pipes and meters put in or constantly worry that you are not achieving best value for money.

Ethanol fires can be placed in bathrooms! They don't need any pipes or connection, so you can build one wherever you need, or simply place a ready-made freestanding unit.

This is a custom built fireplace, using two of our Large Bio Containers - special bio fuel boxes to create 'ribbon fire'.

Best of all, your stylish, free-standing Bio Fire will warm your room with its attractive, clean real flame whenever you need it to. No pipes, no fitters, no servicing and probably best of all, no hassle. And if you move house, you can take it with you!

Ulyssess II bio fuel fire - stunning modern glass fireplace, no gas or other connection whatsoever!

Roma Freestanding Bio Ethanol fireplace (no gas pipes!) in an interior designed by FLAMANT

Serenity - bio fuel fire - here wall mounted, but can also be freestanding