What's the best option for converting a wood fireplace to electric?
Fairview burns wood — the big wooded lots up Cane Creek and Garren Creek make it the natural choice — so converting to electric here is really a decision to stop burning. The honest trade: a Dimplex insert ends the creosote sweeps, the hauling, and the chimney-fire worry entirely, but surrenders grid-independent heat in propane country. Roughly 5,000 BTU of flame, and dark when the power's out.
What you'd be retiring
On Fairview's wooded lots, creosote is the leading cause of chimney fires when fall sweeps get skipped — and let's be honest, they get skipped. An electric conversion retires the entire category: no combustion means no creosote, no sweep schedule, no wood split and stacked and hauled through the mudroom, no smoke, no sparks near the tree line. The firebox gets cleaned out, the flue gets sealed and capped, the Dimplex insert plugs in, and the fireplace becomes the one appliance in the house that never asks for anything.
What a wooded lot gives up
Now weigh the other column. Fairview is propane country with a strong wood-heat culture, and both of those fuels work when the power lines don't — which, out the valley roads, is the scenario worth planning for. Wood is heat you own outright. If the chore is what's driving you out, there's a middle path: an EPA wood insert burns far more efficiently than an open fireplace, so you get more heat from less wood, with a sealed firebox taming the mess. Or go LP gas — licensed piping and regulator work, permitted with Buncombe County — and keep flame-when-it-counts without the axe.
Decide it side by side on Emma Road
You're 15 minutes from our showroom, where the Dimplex flame burns within a few steps of live gas and wood units — the fastest way to feel the difference between ambiance and heat. Come by 629 Emma Rd, or call (828) 545-0525 for a free in-home assessment at your place.
Fireplace help in Fairview
We install and service fireplaces throughout Fairview and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes east from our Asheville-area showroom.