Where to put a bioethanol burner (3kW or so)?

[Garald]

Having been convinced that wood stoves in urban areas are evil, I am now thinking of putting an inexpensive ethanol burner in one of the fireplaces in the main room (library) - not for routine usage, but in case of cold wave/power outage/broken heatpump/self-indulgence.

 

Question: does it make more sense to put it in the decorative mantelpiece (which may have once been part of a working fireplace, but has no flue):

or in the working fireplace in the other end (which I would then not even have to pay to have cleaned, presumably, though it wouldn't cost a fortune to do so):

?

 

The locations are different: there's a kitchen on the other side of the wall where you can see the non-functional mantelpiece, whereas, as you can guess from the insulation, the working chimney is on an exterior wall.

[Jilly]

Get one you can move so you don't have to decide...?

Edited January 2, 2023 by Jilly

[Garald]

53 minutes ago, Jilly said:

Get one you can move so you don't have to decide...?

 

Sure, but what makes more physical sense?

[Jilly]

Aesthetically, only you can decide what looks best. They both need an infill feature of some sort. Physically maybe trial it with a fan heater if you mean you're not sure where you want the focus of the heat?

 

As an aside, do they make the room humid as they give off water vapour? I'm obsessed with that at the moment, so would probably be monitoring it and using a dehumidifier, which would kind of defeat the object.