I have two, one works, and we occasionally burn a Duraflame in it.

I grew up with three. One was gas and got used occasionally. One was woodburning with a gas ignition that got used regularly(couple times a week in winter) for about a decade or two.

One was lit once, it made the room so hot we had to open the windows and it was never lit again in 42 years.

1. yes
2. On cold winter nights, especially when we have company. this is socal cold so anything below 55 deg.

We have one (wood burning) and use it 2 or 3 times a week in the late fall through early spring...more around the holidays or if there's a storm. During the holidays & storms, it's going almost non-stop. I love fires! It's in the Family Room and is visible from the kitchen.

We also have a fire pit in the backyard where we have small bonfires once a week or so during the summer & early fall.

We're starting to talk about putting in a liquid propane tank so we can add a gas fireplace in both the Master BR and the basement (the "man cave").

We have 2. One is in the upstairs living room, and is a "regular" fireplace (burns wood). We use it maybe once a year. We converted the one downstairs in our daylight basement into a pellet stove and in the winter we use it whenever we're down here for more than 20 minutes or so. We live in eastern WA state, so it gets cold here in the winter (spring, summer, and fall LOL) so we use it a lot.

2 fireplaces--both gas. One in family room and one in retreat off of master bedroom (it's between retreat and master bath). Fireplace in FR gets used all the time (i.e., every evening) in the winter. Fireplace in retreat is double burner (glass on 3 sides) and really puts out the heat. It gets used but not for extended periods of time because it just gets too warm--but it's great for warming up the room first thing on a frosty/snowy morning or taking a bath on a cold night after skiing (my muscles ache so much more than they used to!). And I plan to add a third when we finish the basement--AFTER the kitchen remodel!

one. 10 years never used. Probably not even functional. This is Los Angeles.

12 including 4 in the attic for the servants (many, many years ago). We don't use any yet since they're not lined but all were functionally and used at one time. Some still have coal in them. The house was originally heated with the FP. We're lining one in the TV room and getting a gas fireplace insert, adding another gas FP in the guest bedroom (that part of the house is very cold even though we insulated the walls) and use the rest with candles. We may try wood sometime if we line it first.

2 Fireplaces. One in living room burns wood gets used mostly on weekends in Winter, other is in Family room (Gas) fully adjustable even has a therostat on its remote.
This one is used daily in winter, and in fact keeps the whole house warm, and we rarely use the Forced air furnace, except to rarely heat up the master bath upstairs.
We are a bit colder here, (apparently), Yorba Linda, about 25 miles from LA (Calif).

Gary

We built our house with one in the living room (never use it), and a soapstone wood stove in the family room. A few years ago, I got fed up with the mess from the wood stove, and the time required to get it going well enough to heat the FR, and put in a gas fireplace with a remote thermostat. LOVE the gas fireplace. On cold winter mornings, I switch it on and the kids come down and lay on the floor near it while they wait for breakfast. Great on lazy nights by the TV too. Just adjust it up or down, and switch it off when its time for bed. I would love to add one to my bedroom.

One... in the living room. It is a woodburning insert that we bought when we moved in here in 1983. It is a Vermont Castings. Use it about 4 x a week in winter. It throws out so much heat that once it is really working you can turn off the heat to the whole house.

We have one and use it. Not so much for heat (unless the power goes off) but "ambiance". It was suppose to be a wood burning but I didn't want the mess or smoke smell, so we installed ventless gas (propane) and I love it. Had I known tho, we probably wouldn't have spent 12K on brick for the chimney since its not necessary. Our original house plans called for one in the master BR and we didn't put it in. Would've been nice :(

I'm in West Virginia which can get pretty cold but we mostly use it because I like to look at it. Especially around the holidays. And if its on high too long it will run us out of the room.

Side note:
I am getting rather tired of the brick surround. I would love to do what brickmanhouse did and trim it out or paint the brick white.

Three...sort of. One in the MBR that's not usable (so it's not really a fireplace then, is it?) One in the LR that has been converted to a pellet stove. Used it all last winter every day. Easy, warm and a nice ambiance. Now I'm putting a gas stove (Hearthstone) in the remodeled kitchen. I had one in my old house and loved it...nice ambiance, nice heat.

wow, not what i was expecting! does anyone have a wood stove? we're considering putting a wood stove in the family/living room upstairs because my experience with fireplaces is that they don't put out much heat and can actually make a room colder when not in use.. but i'm also worried a wood stove might put out so much heat that it becomes unusable in a modern heated house (other than in the basement).

I will have four fireplaces when I am done with my remodel!
I use them, love them and even have one in my bedroom. There is nothing like a fire when it is cold outside and
curling up in bed or on a couch with a book or hot chocolate! Sooooo, YES is my answer.

We have one wood burning FP in the LR which is visible from the kitchen due to open floor plan of kitchen, DR, and LR. We don't use it for heat, mainly for pleasure. Just had wood delivered-one cord-yesterday for this upcoming fall/winter. Live in ski country/snow belt area of western New York so it has come in handy for power outs and for those frigid days we get here. There's always at least one power out during the winter and the FP keeps us warm. Love my FP!!!

We have three fireplaces.

1. Huge see through wood burning one in basement we use 3 or more times a week during the winter.

2. A wood burning one in family room that we have used once in that last several years - though with our kitchen remodel we will probably use more often.

3. Wood burning in Master Bedroom we added several years ago (Bong chiki bong bong)...but, alas it has been used infrequently and we only burn duraflame logs in it.

If you want to use your wood burning fireplace for heat you can put in a heatilator.

We have four (one wood burning, two gas, and one electric) and we do use them all!

We're in the Mid Atlantic, and winters get cold! Because it takes a little effort to build a fire, we tend to use the wood burning fireplace mainly on weekends and when we'll be around and in the family room for a good bit of time.

The gas and electric fireplaces, however, we use all the time, with just a flick of the switch! Our house is a bit big, and very old, and even with an efficient furnace, some rooms could often use a bit of help in the heat department. Having the auxiliary heat sources has cut way down on our oil bill-- it's been nice.

I'm in Northern California so it does get cold in the winter. I have a gas fireplace in my family room and I use it to help warm the room up and sometimes that is all I need and don't have to use my central heat. I love it for the ambiance and in the winter when I have parties I always have it on.

We have one in the den. It was wood-burning; dh put in an insert & I hated it...no view at all of the fire. Neither was ideal, messy & not good for allergies. We've since put in gas logs, but since menopause, I don't do well with extra heat. A fireplace in the den tends to make the other rooms rather cold. Also, since the room faces west, we get the afternoon sun in that end of the house. We use it for back-up during ice storms.

Our new build will have gas logs for the living room & a wood-burner for the screen porch. We can't have an open fire on our land, so we'll have our campfire on the porch.

Mountaineergirl: We covered our brick monolith with sheet rock; then we had it trimmed out with a nice mantle with dental moulding & "legs" with finger boards. You can hardly tell it was a brick fireplace at one time.

Until I was 23, the only houses I lived in utilized wood burning stoves for heat. Needless to say my dad was an expert at getting just the right fire going. During family gatherings, yes it gets too hot and the windows have to be opened, but other than that, the wood burning stoves produce a wonderful heat. Everything in the room gets nicely warm - the floor, the wall, etc. It tends to be a gathering spot. Everyone walks into my parents house and goes straight to the stove. And it sure was nice when the power went out. In fact, that's where we still go in power outages.

Two: a new clean face gas fp in the family room, which we use every day about 6 months of the year, and a woodburning fp in the study that we use occasionally (DH uses the study as his actual work office now, so it isn't conducive for family gatherings anymore).

Our downstairs stays very cool, not much sun in the family room, so we warm up the house every morning (Oct-April) with it. The upstairs stays warm due to exposure and, well, being upstairs (which is great in winter but not in summer). ANyway, we use the gas fireplace all the time, and don't need the furnace on while it's working.

We have a wood fireplace in our family room. A fireplace was a "must have" on our list when we were buying a house. We use it often in the fall and winter and for holidays. Plenty of times on some random night of the week, we will light a fire. Our tv is in the same room, and the room is open to the kitchen, so it's in a great spot to get a lot of use. Also, I love the smell of woodsmoke on a brisk, cold day.

If it's a weekend and it's snowing there is always a fire in our wood burning fireplace! It's just so cozy watching the snow gently falling while listening to the fire crackle. That being said we live in the country and have a limitless supply (almost) of firewood. If this were not the case we probably wouldn't use it so much.

The gas fireplace in the basement family room is used somewhat less.

We have one in the living room, and we try to use it every time the temps drop into the 40s. We live in Florida, so we don't have that many days like that, but we usually get at least 10 or 15 days every year. This past winter, there were more cold days than usual, but some years, we've lit a fire only once or twice all winter. The house was built in 1942, so I'm sure there was a time when it was an important source of heat on those few cold days days.

Absolutely I use mine! I love sitting in front of the fireplace first thing in the morning with my cup of coffee covered with an afghan! So cozy...I do this during the fall and winter almost every morning!

We have two fireplaces: one gas in the family room, one wood in the master bedroom. (I imagine the gas family room one was originally wood as well and a previous owner converted it.) We use the gas family room one all the time: it is integrated with a heating thermostat and keeps the room warm and cozy in the winter. We've used the master bedroom wood fireplace once in the last five and a half years. While it's pretty, it really isn't very practical for us. I think I'd rather convert it to gas and then maybe we would use it more.

Had a wood burning w/ gas ignition in our last house. We used it with real wood a very small handful of times, and with java logs about 10 times. That's over a 12-year span... so I can say we wouldn't have missed it.

Have a gas burning one in our current home. We closed yesterday and start moving in tonight so I will let you know. :) We will most likely only use it for ambiance when we have evening company. Our thermostat is just around the corner, and we don't want it to freeze out the other rooms.

We have one wood-burning fireplace, one woodstove, and no furnace in our 2-level 2000 sq.ft. home.

We no longer directly burn fossil fuels. We became terminally pi$$ed off at imported oil and energy monopolies so we made the south face of our house an energy producer with photovoltaic cells and solar hot-water panels.

The wood stove (a small Scan) sits in the middle of the open floor plan and is in daily use October through April. We burn wood in the LR fireplace when we have company or want romantic ambiance. Fireplaces are controversial up here in the frigid north country; some people believe they suck out as much warm air as they produce. They are awfully sensual though. :)

Ceiling fans (and we have very high ceilings) in almost every room help quite a bit in equalizing warmth throughout.

Life without thermostats requires constant daily adjusting and fine-tuning of heat sources, but the feeling of relative freedom from the world energy mess is priceless.

rc

(in the frigid north country: Vermont)

My fireplace has a multiple-pillar candle holder. Looks elegant when lit, and much easier to clean up.

We have one zero-clearance gas fireplace that is the primray source of heat in the house (we supplement with portable electric heaters when it gets very cold). I live in California's mild Bay Area, so winter lows rarely get below the high 20's. We use it as often as temperatures demand.

We just put in a fireplace last year. We debated the whole wood vs propane thing & decided that neither of us was really into splitting & stacking wood & I didn't want all the mess & bugs associated with a wood stove.
So we put in a very efficient propane fireplace & we love it. We knew we would, we had two in our last house which we used all the time. We use it to heat our house, in conjunction with electric baseboards.
The neighbours have a wood stove & honestly it's either so hot 90+, they constantly have the windows wide open in the winter or so cold -60 when they get home from work, it would drive me nuts. They are also constantly on the look out for wood & end up burning green wet wood quite often which is disgusting.
But some people don't mind it. Our other neighbours also have a wood stove, but they have 4 years of wood split for it, but she is home most of the time, so they have quite even heat.
I think you have to seriously consider how much work you're
willing to do & your threshold for mess.

First house (20 years) wood burning fireplace in family room. Loved it!

Second house (10 years)wood burning stove in family room, again we loved it.

Third house (current-10 years)we had an original 1907 Modern Glenwood Round Oak wood burning stove. Loved it, but as we are aging the work involved got to be a little much. It now sits in a corner of the dining room as decoration. In the family room we now have a pellet stove. Love it and it is always where I stand to "toast my buns!"

We have a small gas one in our small family/kitchen. It puts out too much heat and seldom gets used. It was installed mostly as emergency heat because it works without electricity. It did save us in a couple of big windstorms.

My son has an unused masonry fireplace that has recently been taken over by Vaux's swifts. He gets about 70 birds every night for a couple of months in spring and fall.

We have a walk-in fireplace in the keeping room (c. 1680 part of house), a fireplace in the living room and a wood stove in another large fireplace in the dining room. All three are used but the living rom is used the most. All that being said- If I had a fireplace in the kitchen it would be lit from September to April. I have always yearned for a fireplace in the kitchen and drool when I see one here.

mfrog, can't you just buy those compressed sawdust logs that burn forever instead of dealing with the wood splitting/storing/drying/bugs issues? or is it not the same experience?

Have a wood burning fireplace in the livingroom. We live on Long Island where the winter can vary greatly as to severity but regardless we'll go through 3 cords of wood per year.

We love our fireplace.

I live in Minnesota. Enough said.

We have a wood burning in current house and use the firelogs; rarely real wood.
In our dream world, it will be a propane fireplace.
We use it all the time....even the firelogs.

qwibbled, those pressed logs are very expensive here, anyway it doesn't matter we have the fireplace we wanted. I was just trying to give the OP some things to think about.

sorry, just realized you are the OP.

What kitchenkelly said. ;^)

Love having a fireplace! It was a must-have when we were looking for houses oh-so-many moons ago.

Two fireplaces, one wood burning stove. We go through 3 cords of wood a winter; the wood burning stove is almost always going (it provides a great deal of heat for the house and helps keep the heating bills down). The other fireplaces are in the current LR and family room. We rarely use these. We're planning on converting the LR fireplace to gas (with an insert) during our kitchen remodel and eventually want to put an insert into the family room fireplace.

We have a wood-burning fireplace in the living room, which is at one end of the 20' x 40' great room that includes the LR, DR and kitchen. So it is visible from all three. We use it 2-3 nights per week during the winter (November - February). We're in central Alabama, so winter nights don't usually get much below the teens. We got new HVAC this year, though, so the FP will probably be more for ambiance than for heat now. But I have to say that in the four house I have owned, this one is the only one that works well and draws well. The others (1920s homes) always required a cracked door or window or something to keep the place from smoking up.

The ca. 1978 FP has heat vents on the front. No fan, just the vents. I don't see that they really do much. One always heats up more than the other (a different one each time). I'd rather they not be there so I could have a nice clean brick wall instead of the vents, which, when combined with the opening for the firebox, make the whole thing look sort of like a pale jack-o-lantern. I have two IKEA canvases hanging on the vents right now, so they are hidden. We just take the canvases down when we actually light a fire.

In the fall/winter we have guys on the streetcorners with truckloads of split, seasoned wood. They follow you to your house and unload and stack it for you. So it's not a big deal at all. As for the bugginess, we live in the woods, so . . . there will be bugs. We don't freak out about it.