We are planning to build in 2022; the planning begins

A 3-sided fireplace is also planned with us. Depending on which manufacturer of the insert you want or are offered, the prices vary from 8000 to 12000. It must be noted that the insert should not be chosen too large, otherwise the room or the floor will overheat too quickly. You would then have to open the windows and minimize the fire. This, in turn, is not liked by the fireplace insert as it does not operate at optimal efficiency and thus does not burn properly. In the long run, this destroys the fireplace and chimney.

If people consider a fireplace to be feel-essential, they should clarify the basics of this view: if it is based on current experiences, then they simply have a different attitude than I do and a good chance of sticking to their opinion in practice. If, on the other hand, it is based on experiences from a household built in 1980 (or otherwise quasi "before Christ" in terms of energy saving regulations), then they will only light it for a white Christmas and otherwise mostly forgo a refill with windows wide open. And then they will be annoyed at having paid such hellish coal for it. I recommend the fake not primarily because it is cheaper, but because it is not a bug, but rather sometimes a feature that a placebo contains no active ingredient - here: precisely not the side effect. A fireplace simulation warms the residents purely psychologically without physically cooking them. I have only driven a Twingo once on loan so far, but I have driven the Uno and Corsa for a long time and like the Agila too - which today only often applies to Mercedes, instead of being without exception before 1993. Currently I am thinking about a Panda.

So I completely misunderstand that? I am happy to be corrected!

A huge fireplace for €15,000 doesn’t get as hot as a small Swedish stove that only costs €2,000? I definitely don’t want to use it for heating and I don’t want to melt away during the TV evening... I’m much better off with a small stove where I just throw in a few logs that then burn slowly, right?

Then am I understanding this completely wrong? A huge fireplace for €15,000 doesn’t get as hot as a small Swedish stove that only costs €2,000?

Partly Both get hot, but the difference is how long it takes until the heat is released. Of course, a built-in fireplace is so expensive because a lot more effort is required for installation. You really can’t compare that to a normal Swedish stove. You can also buy a "cheap" built-in fireplace for a lot of money, but let's leave that situation aside. If you want to keep it simple, take the example of an expensive Swedish stove and a cheap Swedish stove: The expensive Swedish stove is definitely better suited for heating because it has more mass, meaning more material was used (the steel walls are thicker, soapstone was used, etc.). That’s usually why the price is so high. Due to the mass, it takes longer for the stove to heat up itself and then slowly release the heat into the room. A cheap Swedish stove lacks this material and therefore releases the heat "all at once" into your room. This means you get heat quickly in the room but it also gets cold again quickly once the fire has burned out.

So I am clearly better off with a small stove where I just throw in a few logs that then slowly burn away nicely?

You can’t say that so generally. You can’t just throw "a few logs" into the stove and expect it to look good. For the wood to burn properly and cleanly, a certain temperature must exist in the combustion chamber, and you only get that if you make a proper fire. Soot and smoke form if you don’t burn cleanly. Then the fire in the fireplace doesn’t really look good. I don’t want to make it sound more dramatic than it is. It’s not rocket science, but in general, it’s harder to make a small, clean fire than simply heating at full power. But you’re not the only one in this situation. Nobody buys a fireplace today to heat the whole house and replace the heating system. 99% of buyers buy stoves simply because they want to. Stove manufacturers know this and have adapted accordingly. If I were you, I would get advice at a stove studio, because they can surely offer you something suitable. For €2,000-4,000 you can get a nice stove for the eye (not for heating).

And compare the heating capacity of the fireplace with that of your house. Houses typically have 4 to 7 kW and small Swedish stoves around 5 kW. You can easily imagine the resulting temperature in a room, and no, the underfloor heating cannot quickly dial down. There are really good fake fireplaces, weak ethanol fireplaces, and also [4K Kamin Bluerays]. I don't want to play the great environmental activist, but we really need to stop constantly burning things!

Environmental activists do, but we really need to stop constantly burning things!

This is not a problem with wood-burning stoves if the combustion is clean (enough wood, dry wood). Since 2015, wood-burning stoves have to meet certain regulations to be allowed to be installed at all. Since many old stoves do not meet these regulations, they had to/must be taken out of operation. Every chimney sweep can measure fine dust, etc., and will confirm to you that this fear is unfounded with new stoves. Edit: This is all defined in the Federal Immission Control Act