Alternative Fireplaces Selling Well

With natural gas prices predicted to rise by as much as 70 percent this winter, you might think fireplaces that use the fuel would be something of a hard sell.

Not so, Bob Benhower says.

In a showroom surrounded by more than a dozen gas-powered fireplaces and one that runs on electricity, the owner of Nob Brick & Fireplace in Fort Wayne says people are actually seeking out the products his company sells.

“In actuality, it’s helping our sales because people are now turning the heat down in their entire house and staying comfortable in the room they’re in, which is the room that has the fireplace,” Benhower explains.

“All of a sudden, the gas log becomes an energy-saver because even though what it is burning up costs more, it costs less, housewise.”

Indeed, in what amounts to a redux of the energy crisis of the late 1970s, people are busily turning to all sorts of alternative heating sources to help make ends meet this winter.

Not only are they dusting off their fireplaces and cleaning their chimneys and stocking up on firewood, they’re also investing in wood- and pellet-burning stoves and taking home corn burners and electric fireplaces. And, believe it or not, they’re even installing an array of gas-burning fireplaces that promise to use less fuel than a full-fired furnace.

Few, if any, of the heating options are likely to cost less than the year’s natural gas price increases. “We tell them that you can’t recoup it (the cost of an alternative fuel unit) in one year. You have to spread it out over several,” says Bob BonAmi of Old Fort Supply in Fort Wayne, which sells wood-burning stoves.

So, for customers who aren’t willing to take the gamble that natural gas prices will continue at record-high levels for a long time, or who don’t have money to burn this year, an alternative heating appliance might not be a smart bet.

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