I am coming to the end of my basement remodel (hopefully). My wife and I want to put in a gas fireplace. Stopped at the local gas supply company where I live and they had a few pre-fab cabinets that gave us some good ideas. The lady at he store was giving us some tips that I question. She asked us if we wanted the fireplace for heat or for looks. My response was "both". Her next question was, do we want the fireplace as a backup to our central unit in the event of a powerr outage due to winter storms wetc.. We told her yes. She said that gas fireplaces do not give off the amount of heat that a blue or red flame wall unit would especially since the blower fans would not work. Why would a gas fireplace of similar BTU rating not produce the same amount of heat as a blue or red flame wall heater? it doesn't add up to me. She also mentioned that under normal circumstances the blower fans are loud and would be a nuisance while watching TV etc. When they come on we would have to turn up the volume on the TV. This also seems wierd to me. I know you will have the sound of the wind coming from the fans, but don't they make quite opperating fans for the blowers now a days? We really want a fireplace for the heat and the looks but if there is any truth to what this lady is telling us I may reconsider and just go with a much cheaper wall unit.