Cozy up to an earth-friendly fire

Can a wood-burning fireplace help cut your heating bill this winter? Or does the air pollution created cancel out any electricity savings?

Is it better to burn cut trees or those fake logs from the supermarket? Let's look at the facts.

First, according to the Energy Guide, a typical masonry fireplace is a pretty inefficient way to heat a room. At least 80% of the heat escapes up the chimney, plus the fireplace pulls cold air into your house through small gaps around windows and doors.

These "convective heat losses" are bigger than the radiant heat the fire provides. And most fireplaces are poorly insulated, so they conduct room heat outside.

So as far as money savings, that fireplace isn't helping. All it does is look pretty.

Worse still is the pollution aspect. The American Lung Association finds that wood smoke is to blame for huge amounts of particulate matter air pollution across the U.S. in winter. This causes lower respiratory infections, exacerbation of asthma, and decreased breathing ability in people, especially children and the elderly.

Are we stuck with the video yule log? Well, depends on where you live and how often you burn a fire.

Duraflame's new logs made of plant-based waxes, nuts, shells, and wood fiber are a moderate hit with greens like TreeHugger. The manufactured logs burn cleaner and longer than natural wood, so you don't need to use as much for the same effect.

Green Daily also recommends Java Logs, another manufactured log. This one is made of recycled paper and coffee grounds and, like Duraflame, burns longer than regular wood.

It's also possible to make your own logs out of newspapers. You'll want to burn this in combination with other wood, however, to get a longer-lasting fire. But it's not a bad way to keep old papers out of the landfills.

This video report from CBS 5 notes that Seattle and Portland air districts recommend burning artificial logs if you want a fire this winter. But the news channel also says that the San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District is stricter about all wood smoke, due to worse pollution.

Keep in mind that you probably shouldn't use manufactured logs in wood-burning stoves, which have special requirements. However, stoves are much more efficient than fireplaces if you actually want to heat your house. Check out the EPA guide for more details.