Energy Usage, Conservation and Weather Stripping - Gas Fireplace vs Furnace....

I read throught most of the threads and either I missed it or I didn't find one that quite answers my question. Would it be cheaper for me to run my gas fireplace for a half hour every 2 hours or just run my furnace? I have feeling this is not a very "bright" inquiry but oh well, I'm sure I've asked dumber question's in the past! Thanx for any help and Happy Holidays to all!!!

Hi walleyeshark, I'll contribute what I can. In terms of efficiency, the furnace is usually better, but not a lot if your gas fireplace is one of the modern high efficiency ones. The bigger savings comes from heating only a limited area. Where your furnace system is designed to heat the whole house, your fireplace will allow remote areas to get cooler and hold the central area at what ever temp you choose. Whenever outside temps get cold enough to threaten pipes or too cold for your fireplace to keep up, then kick the furnace on.
If your gas fireplace is an old klunker, then it's efficiency may be in question and I don't have a number for that.
There is a lot of reading on the internet about things you can do to reduce your homes heating demand, and from experience, you can probably cut your use in half, and that's with using the furnace.
Stay warm,
Bud

Thanx for such a quick response! This site has been VERY helpful to me over the years!! My fireplace is on the 3rd floor of a quad-plex, 1 above our basement. Meaning, that with the rise of the heat off of it, our 2 most occupied rooms stay real comfortable by just turning on the fireplace every couple/few hours or so and letting in run for a half hour at the most. Just for this situation, I would think that would be quite a bit cheaper than letting the furnace run all day and nite...what say you? Oh, my fireplace is 7yrs old if that helps. Thanx again for all of your help!!!