Vented gas fireplaces are gas fireplaces that use vents to expel the fumes resulting from burning natural gas. This is essential to keeping your home fume free. Exposure to large amounts of natural gas fumes can cause dizziness, and damage to a persons body, not to mention a fire hazard. This is why many people install vents and keep their homes gas free.
The contemporary fireplace has always been wood burning and vented through a chimney at the top. Many people want a fireplace but cannot modify their home to the extent needed to install a chimney. This is where a ventilation system comes in. This is typically installed in the fire pit and depending on the size and type of the fireplace, may have a fan. Or it may just be a hole to the outside world for ventilation.
The typical places you will find vented gas fireplaces are in homes that have access to gas. After all there’s no sense in having a gas fireplace if you have no gas to use in it. Natural gas is a very clean safe alternative to wood burning, and it also does not require you to chop down threes. In addition it produces little to no smoke; the only thing given off is fumes. Fumes are not harmful if managed properly via good ventilation.
Thou cam’st out of thy mother’s belly without government, thou hast liv’d hitherto without government, and thou may’st be carried to thy long home without government, when it shall please the Lord. How many people in this world live without government, yet do well enough, and are well look’d upon?
— Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
Of course if you do not want a gas fireplace you can go for woodburning fireplaces. Or you can go for the electric one that is nothing but displays. This won’t heat your home but it does give the look of a fireplace. Regardless of whether you want to go contemporary or not the choice is up to you. Just make sure to get the right accessories for each type.
Fireplace accessories tend to include pokers for wood, and metal grates in the front to keep things, and people from getting into the pit. It’s a good idea to keep children away from fireplaces anyway. They need to be taught that it’s not a play area and can be very dangerous. This goes for all fireplaces, gas, and wood burning.
Vented gas fireplaces aren’t as expensive as they used to be either. With more people heading towards natural gas the prices has come down. Plus material costs have gone down making building them easier. The quality of contractors however is not guaranteed and they should be hired with care. Not every contractor is trustworthy.
The tourist is first of all an adventurer. The dream is of the pioneer, the explorer, the great voyager or the conquering emperor. He leaves the security of home far behind and sets out beyond the perimeters of the known world for fame, fortune and excitement. He wants to take on the minotaur, scale the Matterhorn, discover a lost Amazonian tribe or sample the delights of a Thai brothel.... The essence of the tourist adventure is exhibited in the contours of the excitements that it provides. And these contours are best inferred from the stories that are told and re-told with animation to relatives, friends and colleagues at home. It is virtually never what has been seen that is recounted with enthusiasm. When the sites are described it is in the form of ritualized cliches: the Eiffel Tower really is a wonder—we went up it, and you get such a nice view. It is rather the personal moments of the tour, moments of near-crisis, that in retrospect were exciting: when one of the suitcases failed to arrive off the luggage chute at Frankfort Airport. Touring itself has been turned into a routine, restricting adventure to those moments when routine breaks down.
— John Carroll (b. 1944)
Of course you know this already, or at least I hope you do. In any case the choice of fireplace is up to you. If you want one outside you can do that to. Nothing like an outdoor fireplace for some summer cookouts.
With the prices dropping, and more people switching to natural gas, vented gas fireplaces are becoming more common place. They can fit into areas that cannot accommodate a chimney, and they are very easy to maintain. All that’s involved in the ventilation system is an exhaust port that might have a fan. I say might because not all gas fireplaces need them; the type of ventilation needed is relevant to the size of the fireplace.