One way of finding out about your fireplaces is to hire a chimney sweep who also does more than just sweep, in other words has expertise on installations, repairs, etc. When he or she comes to clean, which you should do before you do anything, especially if you're new to the house and don't know what was done before, you can ask questions about what you want to do. Since you're not interested in heating, but want a gas fire for atmosphere, you don't want to spend money on a gas insert. They're expensive and the best way to heat. As you probably know, gas logs come either vented or nonvented. In my opinion, and I'm not alone in this, nonvented should be outlawed. Many municipalities have building codes that disallow them in sleeping rooms because they take oxygen out of the air and cause fumes to build up because they cannot get vented out. If you are at all concerned about indoor air quality, you won't get unvented. Consumer Reports has a good article on that issue, which you can get from their website without paying. The one problem with the vented logs is that you have this vent that's locked in the open position. You may not want that especially when it's very hot in the summer or when it gets cold in winter. One way of managing that problem is to get good glass doors that close off your firebox when you're not using it. Another thing you can do: If you're on speaking terms with the party who sold you your house, or if the broker is still in contact with them, find out from them about the fireplaces. Or ask a neighbor -- maybe they know what they did.

We just had a new insert installed in our zero clearance fireplace. The electrical wasn't hooked up so the fan isn't working. Also, only the box was put in, we are waiting for the custom faceplace to go around the box which will make a tight fit with our current opening. Our installer(from the fireplace store) said we can use it and he'll be back next week to put on the faceplace and hook up the electrical. My concern is that the fake brick above the fireplace seems quite warm. I know there is wood under there somewhere. Maybe it's not a problem?? But is it safe to be burning this thing w/o the fan? Should we really wait for the fan, because it's necessary to move the heat from the unit?

sorry for the wrong terminology, as its all new to me. I believe this house was built without a fireplace. I assumed what I saw in my attic was a double-walled liner. It's a good 18" in diameter. It looks to me that the hearth and firebox was built to house the Heatilator. There is no masonary viewable inside the firebox. The interior of the firebox has steel panels that join together and funnel up to about a 6" dampner opening. The hearth has an 8"lg by 1 1/2" grate at the fireplace opening, which as far as I can tell is just a cavity in the hearth. THe hearth also has a cavity built-in at the back of the fireplace against the outside wall. I don't know why either are there (circulation?) The Heatilator doesn't have a blower, only a open/close vent at the bottom right. If I determine the size of the internal diameter of the chimney pipe and its suitable, couldn't that be joined with the pipe from the new wood burning insert?

That is a really nice set Rebbecamom. I think your concern was wixe because, from the photos, it looks like the cabinets projecting at the side of the fireplace may cross the zone where you shouldn't have combustibles with a wood fire. At least for our wood burning fireplace, the installation instructions say there should be no combustibles in front of a line that goes out from the side of the firebox at 45 degrees for 24" on each side of the fireplace up to some height above the fireplace. I don't know how universal that requirement is, so perhaps your set up would have been okay with your fireplace. We put in a wood burning fireplace for the family room that is sealed so there is no issue with embers or sparks. It heats the family room really well and provides the look of real flames, but one can't hear the crackling of the fire. Also, we don't feel comfortable running it when our little grandchildren are visiting because the glass gets really hot - if we were going to run it with small children around, we would probably want to put a protective fence of some sort around it which would not help ambiance. It uses external air intake which can be adjusted to control how hot the fire burns and to damp down the rate of burn. It is nice to not have to worry about leaving the fire going when we go to bed. For the living room fireplace, we are considering putting in a gas log set - we have never used that fireplace and have no need of running it for heat, but it would be nice to turn it on occasionally for looks when using the room. We don't need two heating fireplaces and I don't want to deal with wood in the living room.