There have been sales of fireplaces that have sored when we bought a new one for our house as we were remodeling it. Most of the stores and dealers wanted us to purchase a Pellet Stove or a Gas Fireplace or even an Electric one. Now we live in an area that the Electricity is not all that reliable--well it is if you know that in the winter it will go out many times, just for the heck of it. It also does this throughout the year--for no reason that we can discern at any rate.

So for us the fireplace that we need is one that will work when there is no electricty. One that doesn't need a spark such as a Pellet Stove. Gas Frieplaces also need a spark to ignite and to ignite they need electricty. This also goes fo the Electric Fireplaces. They are fine if you just want show for the most part.,

In our case it just makes sense to have a Wood Burning Fireplace. Alot of others who are without electricty for days when the weather turns really bad and there is no electricity are finding that it is a good idea to have alternative ways to heat their homes and to prepare food.

This is what Winter Survival is all about in a world that is depending more and more on Electricity.

Everyone loves the cosiness of what a fireplace brings into the home. There are ways to get that heat to disperse thruoghout your home. They sell blowers for the fireplace. Some fireplaces can be incorporated right into your home's duct work. There are more possiblitities with heating your house with a Wood Burning Fireplace now then there was many years before now.

Even as just a back up to your exisiting electric heat you cannot go worng with this.

Our home is heated by base board heat and doesnt' really do a good job of heating the house so our main supply is the Wood Fireplace and our alternative to heat is the base board heat.

You can use your Wood Fireplace to heat your home during those many and long power outages. Cooking is another way to use that fieplace.

When the electric goes out so do things like Coffee Makers, Stoves and Ovens and Microwaves. All the appliances that we don't think about and use everyday don't work when we lose power to our homes.

You can cook over your Fireplace, even the small ones. You can heat water for soup, coffee, hot chocolate or canned vegetables in a pot that doesn't have any plastic or wooden handles on them. Dutch Ovens are the est for this type of cooking. Use the Fork for the Grill to put Hot Dogs, Steaks, Chicken (skinless) and anything that you can skewer and cook them over the fire. For dessert, who can resist S'mores!

No need to go hungry without electricity when you have a wood fireplace.

Oh and if you are able to get hickory wood you can even give your food a smoked taste. What more could you ever need!

There are fireplaces that you can have built and have how to on cooking. Here are a few that I found:

http://www.rumford.com/oven/articleoven.html

This one has how to cook in Brick Fireplaces, Wood Stoves and includes recipes too:

http://www.plowhearth.com/magazine/firecook.asp

Here is a video of what and how to cook in your fireplace! Haha--he burned it, but there is a knack as to how to do it and how long to keep it in the fire. It's funny to watch though.

http://blip.tv/file/1206803