[winni83]

There is definitely something to be said for the ambiance of a fireplace or stove burning wood. In past houses, we have had both a good fireplace and a Vermont Castings wood stove. We decided that the plusses of either a fireplace or woodstove were outweighed by the dirt, cleaning, storing of wood and other things like not being comfortable leaving the fireplace burning when we left. Never had a pellet stove. However, we love our propane fireplace – not an insert, rather a built in. The logs and embers look very realistic and even without the blower on the adjustable flame will warm up a large room quickly. On and off with the remote and that is it. True, no whiffs of wood smoke or crackling of the fire (that I do miss). Works in a power outage, without the blower, of course. Clean the glass in front of the fire box once or twice a year and that is it.

P. S. On ours, you can disable the cycle on and off by turning the temperature control off, which is what we do when we just want to enjoy the fireplace.