Contributors

Thursday 5 September 2013

Which Electric fire or Gas fire is right for your home?

At Fires2u.com we have an extensive range of fires and fireplaces for our customers to choose from. Your choice will obviously depend on your individual needs such as where you want to position your fire and if you have a chimney or flue. To make this choice a little easier we have highlighted the main types of products that we sell and also the chimney/flue types that can be found in many homes-

ELECTRIC APPLIANCES

Electric Fireplaces
These stylish electric fireplaces come complete with the electric fire as an all in one solution. With no need for a chimney or flue these fireplaces can be positioned in many different room types and are available in different sizes and styles to suit your home.

Wall Mounted Electric Fires
Simply hang on the wall, plug in and then one of our wall mounted electric fires spring into life. With 100% efficient heat and stunning flame effects our electric fires are supplied with either manual and/or remote controls a choice of fascias to suit your internal decoration and a fixing kit for easy installation.

Inset and Hole in the Wall Electric Fires
An ‘inset’ or ‘hole in the wall’ type of fire will normally require a recess to house the engine of the electric fire – this might either be a conventional chimney breast or alternatively a purpose built false chimney breast (the ‘inset depth’ dimensions of all our products can be located when clicking on the information page of our products and then clicking on the dimension tab). Some inset electric fires either come with a spacer kit or can be purchased with one for additional cost which then allows the fire to be fitted freestanding against a flat wall.

Electric Stoves
Electric stoves are freestanding appliances that come with an approx 1 metre of cable with a UK 3 pin socket and can then be simply plugged in.

TYPES OF FLUE OR CHIMNEY
Below is a simple explanation of the various types of flues which will help you make an informed decision on which gas fire maybe right for you and your home needs:

Brick built chimneys


Brick built chimneys can be identified by a brick built chimney stack and by chimney pots. Brick built chimneys give you the widest choice of fires and can accommodate gas fires with full depth fire chambers as well as most inset electric fires*

Pre-fabricated flues


These can be identified by an external metal flue pipe or cowl on the roof and may have a false chimney breast in the room to conceal the metal flue in the home. Pre-fabricated flues can accommodate some slimline gas fires and also some inset electric fires*

Pre-cast flues


Check for a ridge tile vent or a metal flue pipe with cowl. Pre-cast flues are built into cavity walls and can accommodate some slimline gas fires and some inset electric fires*

No chimney or flue
If you can’t see a chimney or Flue as described above then you may require a Balanced Flue or 
Powerflue* gas fire -

Powerflue


Powerflue gas fires use an electronically driven fan unit mounted on the external wall to expel the flue gasses directly outside the building. All the powerflue gas fires we sell our open fronted fires.
Balanced Flue


Balanced Flue fires use a horizontal pipe to vent directly outside. An electricity supply is not required and all Balanced Flue gas fires are glass fronted.

*Fires2u always recommend you check the dimension sizes on our website and also if you are purchasing any gas product you can request the installation instructions of this product by contacting us via email (installation@fires2u.com) with the name of fire you are interested in. We then advise check this information with a registered gas safe fitter who can make sure the product will be suitable for you homes needs before you purchase