Weird Flex of having a Fireplace

It was nice to sit in on sat night, with a battery powered radio and a bottle of wine.

What exactly was so nice about it? I mean, if it's really that nice you would be doing it more often, not only once every few years when the electricity goes out. No, it wasn't nice, you only managed to make a bad situation a bit better.

the older style houses are better set up for power outages

Not really, modern houses are better insulated, will retain heat for longer, and depending on their electrical installation they can be made to work with a generator easier.

It's only strange language if you are old, and out of touch.

I have an open fire, light it every night in this weather, no back boiler, gives me a lovely toasty sitting room. I only have to clean it out once a week at most, don't mind ordering a few bags of coal (smokeless) every now and then or even the job of lighting it, it's not a big job by any means as I just put small amount on as it's around 6 when I light it so doesn't need any more over the night, couple of logs maybe to give a bit of flame. My only gripe with the smokeless is it looks like an artificial fire when it heats up as no flames hence I like a log or two as well

I also have the new type Super Ser which I use in the kitchen during the day when needed rather than have central heating on all day. I have gas hob too as it happens, no issues with cleaning it that I have noticed, it's glass and very easy to give a wipe to when needed.

Wont ever have the full electric house here as not going doing all that retro fitting that would be needed to make it work, fine for new houses or if you have a ton of money to spend but realistically a lot of older houses are going to have to remain as they are.

People flexing about fires come a poor second to the **** with the generator in the shed and the change over switch, if I've heard change over switch once I've heard it 50 times since last Saturday.

What exactly was so nice about it? I mean, if it's really that nice you would be doing it more often, not only once every few years when the electricity goes out. No, it wasn't nice, you only managed to make a bad situation a bit better.

You do know that something done on a very infrequent occasion can be a nice thing no? Nice things don't HAVE to be done every night of the week.

We had a power outage a few years ago, so the electricity was gone and our gas has an electric controller so that was gone as well. So we lit up the fire, opened a bottle of wine and sat there cooking some sausages on the open fire having a chat.

It was, guess what, nice.

But that doesn't mean I'd want to have to do that every night of the week.

With gas you get more heat and faster

Have to completely disagree with you on that one.

Yes the gas provides more heat, but most of it is wasted… and as for being faster than induction!!, not in a million years..

I have a gas hob, and since getting solar panels a few years back, bought a portable induction hob from Ikea for €50, and it is much much more quicker to heat anything up on the induction hob vs the gas..

The induction hob was bought to use excess solar rather than gas in the summer, but it's at the point where I'll use it even in winter to bring a pot to the boil before then transferring it to a gas ring to simmer at the lowest setting, as its just faster & more efficient to heat up using the induction hob vs gas hob.

For those who like the storm-proof solid fuel type of heating, I never understood our irish obsession with open fires which are drafty and inefficient. In Central Europe (places like Austria, Bavaria, Slovenia, parts of Italy) they use big built in ceramic stoves. Some are big enough to lie on. They're built typically in an open plan kitchen living area and the opening is a small hatch in the hall usually, I've seen people feed a few logs in, and within an hour the whole thing is roasting as tge ceramic holds the heat. It's ike a gigantic radiator in the room. No draft and fantastically efficient.