My fireplace fills a ten by fourteen foot hearth room with enough heat for comfortable living, and ceiling fans circulate warm air through the other rooms. It’s no match for a Michigan winter, but it does allow me to leave the gas furnace off during October, November, and most of December. I can also turn the furnace off for the season in mid-March. That leaves me about three months during which the furnace runs full time. Three is lot cheaper that six.
A crackling fire that fills a room with heat and light is practical and also one of life’s simple, most rewarding, pleasures. It’s also romantic. (Attention, guys: Chicks dig things romantic.)