Is a fireplace still useful in new buildings today - experiences?

I see the conclusion differently too. It is not economical, that’s clear, but it can very well be a useful addition to a heat pump to keep the living area a bit warmer. And not to mention the romantic crackling.

Exactly and a few hours of nice heat must also be appreciated

I would recommend everyone to choose a heavy stove with a substantial heat storage mass. It releases the heat with a delay and keeps heating for a long time afterward. As a result, the average heat output is lower and thus more comfortable. We have a 7 kW wood stove with about 900 kg of stone mass, which works quite well. Economically, it doesn't make sense at all, and it also creates a bit of dirt. If we didn't have a cleaning lady, I would probably fire up the stove even less often. A place for storing the wood should also be considered in the garden planning. Today, I would do without the stove, especially since I already have a certain level of self-sufficiency through my emergency generator.

Before I write the same as in the last thread again, I will refer to the search function above, with which you can find all the "Kamin oder nicht" threads

The stove builder immediately advised me to go for one with lower output because otherwise overheating threatens.

Exactly, a fireplace per se does not overheat at all if it is planned and designed accordingly. What often happens with fireplaces: customers choose the most stylish device they have seen in some glossy magazine and think they have to install exactly the same one in their own home. But the glossy magazine at best showed a 100sqm loft and the interested reader now wants that in their 30sqm living room. The stove shop of course loves to sell that device, it also costs a bit more. It seems to me that most buy the fireplace from the catalog without having it planned and adapted to the local conditions. That can only go wrong, meaning sauna effect, throttling, blackened glass panes with the finale "expensive furniture that just stands around and is not used." For that, the 10k - often more like 15k if you have it BUILT by a stove builder with expertise - is definitely too much anyway - even 1000 EUR would be too much for me if it were not used. For us, a fireplace will definitely be installed, not for heating, but because of the ambiance and the great feeling of burning, crackling wood, the distinctly different spectrum of radiant heat - and yes, it is a luxury that you certainly do not need. The same question arises IMHO also with the sauna... also luxury and in my eyes a worthwhile investment, even though we do not install one...

From my point of view, it’s all just sugarcoating. We have a fireplace and only used it once this winter. My wife really wanted one too. Yes, the thing looks nice when it flickers. But for heating, I absolutely don’t need it, even in this 25-year-old house. It’s comfortably warm here anyway; we have a very open ground floor (about 80m²), and as soon as the stove is on, we easily have 3°C more on that floor. Adjusting the heating up or down is not economically sensible. I monitored the heating for a while, and the downward peak is only visible under a microscope. That might save me 2-3%. But for that, I would have to install thermostats in every room and regulate the underfloor heating (which I have anyway, but whatever). Also, the underfloor heating is so sluggish that I still get overheating, only that I can correct this peak faster. For the cost of automatic room control, I could heat for years, even if the wood were free.

Furthermore, when I renewed the heating system last year, I compared all energy sources against each other and came to the conclusion that wood makes absolutely no sense. A cubic meter (dropped off in front of the house) costs us €80. Then there’s splitting, storing, transporting it to the garden and then bringing it into the house. From one cubic meter, I get 1300-1500 kWh, which makes a price per kWh of about 6 cents. Oil and gas cost about the same, maybe even a bit less. Although the efficiency of the stove was taken into account, it was not considered that you might overheat. Everything you overheat you pay for on top of that. Additionally, there are costs for the chimney sweep and maintenance. Not to mention the effort for cleaning. That means for me, I cannot recoup a single cent of the investment costs. Of course, gas and oil prices will rise in the coming years, but wood prices have risen significantly more in the past 15 years, which means that even pellet heating today hardly brings any cost advantages anymore.

The only counter-argument for me would be if, like my father-in-law, someone has enormous fun going into the forest with a tractor and making their own wood. That isn’t free either, but at least cost savings are possible if you don’t count the labor time. The investment probably still won’t pay off in the long run.

My wife and I both work full-time, so we are not able to use the stove for basic heating. If we put some wood on in the morning, the stove is completely cold by the afternoon. So you really have to rely on heating bags, etc., which are usually quite expensive. Or best of all, turn off the underfloor heating at 5 a.m. if you want to heat the stove in the evening. But then again, your feet will be cold.

So MY conclusion: If you like it cozy and watching the fire, of course, you can get a stove/fireplace. But it’s like a sauna, whirlpool, etc., where you usually have to bear both the full investment costs and some of the operating costs additionally. So it’s pure luxury! There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but you should know it.

PS: I’ll leave the fine dust aside because personally I’m not the type who wants to save the world with that. I’m more concerned about the strain on my own lungs during cleaning, etc.

Yes, luxury costs. Some people spend money to fly to the Canary Islands for a week in winter, others prefer to stay comfortably at home for the entire cold season. Everyone has to find out what they prefer. I personally like both [emoji2] However, I wouldn’t want to focus on the “work” and the costs, because then I would always be better off in a rental apartment... A hobby or luxury usually never pays off... Another aspect, as mentioned above, which is often forgotten, is radiant heat: as much as I like underfloor heating, I often miss a proper heat source. You have that with a fireplace.