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Gas Log Features
Home » HVAC » Gas Logs » Gas Log Features• Vent or Ventless? Gas log units also come in either vented units or models that require no external vent at all. Ventless are more easily installed, but they burn with a less-natural blue flame in order to have as complete and clean a burn as possible. They also give off condensation as they burn. A vented gas long unit has a more desirable yellow flame, but requires a properly installed exterior vent. Vented units can cost from $300 to $550 with ventless versions costing slightly more in the $350 to $600 range.
• Propane or Natural gas? Make sure that gas logs you buy are a unit designed for the type of gas available where you live. Natural gas is delivered by pipe directly to your house with continuous on-demand supply. Propane, on the other hand, is delivered in a tank by truck for those house not serviced by natural gas. Propane also requires a large tank be placed on your property near the house to store the gas. One advantage of propane is that you can buy in when gas prices are low and store for use later, thus saving you money.
• Appearance. The greatest variable among Gas logs and the primary factor in your choice is finding the gas logs whose appearance is most appealing to you. Gas logs units vary in the quality and price based on their log style, configuration, and degree of authentic aesthetic appearance. As gas logs are mainly an esthetic accessory, buy the gas logs in your budget which most resemble what you desire in the ambiance of a fire.
• Efficiency. Compare the gas burn rate of available units and their heat efficiency. A vented set of gas logs typically burns between 50,000 and 90,000 BTU/HR of gas costing from forty cents to one dollar per hour. Vented units only have a 10% efficiency of delivery heat from the gas burned actually into the room. The rest goes out the vent. Ventless units burn from 10,000 BTU/Hr to 30,000 BTU/HR costing only from ten to fifty cents per hour. Because they have no vent, they also deliver 99% of their heat burned.
• Remote Control. A gas log unit with a remote control allows you the convenience to turn it on and off, vary its flame height, and possibly control a heat blower fan at the touch of a remote without even leaving your chair.
• Oxygen Depletion Sensor (ODS). An ODS senses when the oxygen level in the room has been depleted to an unsafe level and automatically shuts the unit off.
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