I second the Valor! We installed one just over a month ago and have enjoyed it every day since. We too are in northern California (SF Bay Area) and wanted it to take the chill off the room, and also to close up the drafty chimney that brought cold air in.

I went to three different dealers and saw a number of different brands. We were limited as to our choices due to the fact that we were installing the insert into an existing fireplace opening. But the Valor kept coming up as the primary recommendation from multiple dealers.

We do not regret it for a moment! It looks great and throws off a good deal of heat - enough so that we will turn it down after a while so as to not make the room too hot, even though the space we are heating is a great room that is 20'x15'. We are thrilled with it and would buy one again in a heartbeat.

I 3rd the Valor.
We've had our for 3 years now. It heats the whole downstairs of our 2700 sq ft home (Southern Calif).
6 months before we bought the Valor this dummy replaced tha original AC and Heater in the house (was 33 years old).
Well the forced air has maybe been on half a dozen times in those 3 years, as the Valor is very cheap to run, has a remote with a thermostat that you can set , and it adjusts fire up/down to maintain that temp.
Eventually we will buy another for upstairs Master Bed/bath
as that is the only reason I kicked the forced air on was to hear the master bath.
The Valors, as I mentioned are very cheep top run, I would guess less than 1/3rd the cost to run forced air, perhaps even less than a third.

Gary

I'm interested in getting a Valor. They offer a blower system but say you don't need it - the radiant heat system works well. Did any of you get the blower?

I think I want the coal burner. Did anyone get that in lieu of the logs?

We ordered ours originally without the fan, it heated well but a lot of the heat went "straight up" and would "Substantially" warm the cabinetry above it, especially a ledge that hung out about 3/4's of an inch or so.That ledge has since been filled in with onyx as was the whole surround for the FP. We added the fan and the efficiency is much better---that hot air comes out at you, instead of straight up, and the fan has continuoulsy variable speed and is very quiet, except at fastest speed, where you do hear "Whooshing Air" sounds.
Fan turns itself on automatically once fireplace is hot and turns itself off, once firefplace has cooled down.
I highly recommend the fan, and when we get around to adding a fireplace in Master bed/bath, that too will have a fan.
HTH's

Gary

We didn't get a fan because we wanted just to heat one room and there is no electricity to the fireplace. I don't know how you would wire it.

We have had our valor for many, many years and love it-no problems...EVER. When we did a major renovation we had the fireplace company come over and asked them if we should change it to a newer one-he said it wasn't necessary-it still works very well and it continue to work for more years. Was refreshing to hear his honesty instead of trying to sell us a new model.

Hi sammiecanada,

Although the salesman didn't push it, just saying the Valor was Canadian was a great selling point, I mean, would you buy a heater from Florida?

Graywings - we did not get the blower. Like ernietd, we did not have electricity already running to the fireplace and did not want to install a new line (which was another reason we chose the Valor in the first place - it did not require us to install an electric line).

Our experience has been that the radiant heat is more than enough to heat the room, even though the room is very large. However, it is true that there is a lot of heat rising from the radiant heat. If you stand in front of the fireplace after it has been blazing for awhile you can feel the hot air blowing upwards.

We have a wood mantle, and while the underside of it has gotten warm, it is nowhere near being dangerously warm, and has not been a problem. I did make sure and hang the Christmas stockings on the sides of the mantle, though, not directly over the fireplace as I have done in years past.