Bioethanol Fires for a Media Wall: An Expert Guide

A media wall has become the centrepiece of the modern living room, and for good reason. It brings the television, the fireplace and the architecture of the room together into one considered design. The question we are asked more than almost any other is whether a bioethanol fire belongs in that design. The short answer is yes, and in our experience it is very often the better choice. The longer answer is what this guide is for.

We specialise in EcoSmart Fire products. EcoSmart has been making bioethanol fires for over 21 years and is the world leader when it comes to manual bioethanol fires, so everything below comes from hands-on experience installing and advising on real media wall projects, not from theory.

Why a Bioethanol Fire Suits a Media Wall

As long as you have the space for it, a bioethanol fire in a media wall is always going to be more atmospheric than the alternatives, and it will give far more warmth to the room. There is a real flame, real movement and real heat. It is the difference between a fireplace and a screen pretending to be one.

Bioethanol fires burn a liquid fuel that is made from plants, which makes it a renewable source. More importantly for a media wall, it burns clean. There is no soot, no smoke and no carbon monoxide to worry about, which is exactly why a bioethanol fire does not need a flue. That is what makes it possible to set a real flame into a finished wall, beneath a television, without a chimney or any extraction.

Bioethanol also keeps your heat where you want it. The heat output is genuinely good, ranging from around 3.5kW on the smaller burners up to 4.4kW and 4.5kW on the larger ones at full height. That may not sound like much next to a gas fire on paper, but around 80% of the heat from a gas fire is lost straight up the flue. A bioethanol fire has no flue, so all of that heat stays in the room with you.

While bioethanol burns clean and produces no carbon monoxide, it does draw on the oxygen in the room while it burns, which is why room size is the very first thing we look at on any media wall project.

The First Consideration: Room Size and Ventilation

Before anything else, we check that the room is large enough. A bioethanol fire consumes oxygen as it burns, and we want to be certain there is plenty for the fire and for everyone in the room, with a comfortable margin on top. This is not something to guess at. If you talk to us early, sizing the right burner to the right room is straightforward, and it is the single most important step in getting the project right.

Bioethanol or Electric: An Honest Opinion

Plenty of media walls are built around an electric fire, and we will be the first to tell you when that is the sensible option.

Electric fires make sense in smaller rooms or where someone wants a very low, slim opening for the fire. They are easy and they fit tight spaces. But there are two real downsides. They give out very little heat, so they do little for the comfort of the room. And if you want a flame picture that actually looks convincing, you will end up paying a great deal for it.

So our guidance is simple. If you have the space, choose bioethanol for the atmosphere and the warmth. If the room is small, or you need a very low opening, electric may be the better fit. We would always rather steer you to the right answer than sell you the wrong one.

Choosing the Right Unit: Why We Recommend a Built-In Firebox

For a media wall, we recommend going for a complete built-in unit rather than trying to build protection around a basic burner. The EcoSmart FLEX is the perfect option for this, because all of the thermal protection is built into the firebox itself. That takes the guesswork and the risk out of the installation.

One of the things that makes the FLEX so well suited to media walls is how adaptable it is. The fireboxes arrive with us from Australia as a single-sided unit, and we reconfigure them in our own warehouse based on what each customer needs. That means you are not limited to one format. You can have:

A single-sided fire set into the wall
A tunnel fire, open on two sides
A left or right corner configuration
A bay arrangement
An island setup
A bench-style fire

You choose how many sides are open and how the fire presents itself, and we build it to suit the design of your wall.

How to Install a Bioethanol Fire in a Media Wall

Here is the approach we use and recommend. With a FLEX firebox, the unit is installed into a timber frame, and then the wall is built around it.

Clad the front to the sides and bottom of the opening with plasterboard.
Above the opening, do not use plasterboard. Use a non-combustible board such as an A1 fireboard or a cement board, running it at least 150mm up the face of the breast above the opening.
Finish the opening neatly with a metal bead.

The breast itself needs to be deep enough to take the fire. The FLEX requires a breast depth of 365mm to sit into, so this has to be planned in from the very start. A breast that is too shallow is one of the few things that causes real problems, and it is almost always avoidable with early planning.

Positioning the Television Above the Fire

Heat and clearance are the obvious worries when a television sits above a fireplace, so the geometry here matters. We position the television in a recess set about 100mm back from the face of the breast, and we place that recess 250mm above the opening of the fire. Getting this right keeps the television clear of the heat and gives the finished wall a clean, deliberate look.

A Design Detail Most People Miss

The way we work on media wall projects means mistakes are rare, because we plan further than most. We provide mock-ups and drawings so you can see what the finished wall will look like before a single board goes up.

One detail we always raise at that stage is the relationship between the size of the fire and the size of the television. Avoid making the fireplace exactly the same width as the TV. When the two match, it creates a stripey, blocky look running up the breast that rarely sits well. It works far better when one is larger than the other, and it genuinely does not matter which way round that is. It is a small thing, but it is the difference between a wall that looks designed and one that looks assembled.

Running Costs, Refuelling and Burn Times

Living with a bioethanol fire is easy, and refuelling is simple and clean. We supply fuel in 5-litre bottles, and every unit comes with a screw-on nozzle that fits directly onto the bottle. There is no decanting and no funnel, so there is nothing messy about topping up the burner.

Burn times depend on the size of the burner. As a rule, a full tank burns for around 9 hours at full flame height. If you use the baffles that come included with the fire, you can extend that to 13 or 14 hours and beyond, because the baffle gives a smaller flame. That smaller flame is far from a compromise, it is incredibly pretty, giving a dancing, broken flame that looks wonderfully natural.

The EcoSmart XL burner range covers most media wall projects:

XL500: 5-litre capacity, around 3.5kW output
XL700: 7-litre capacity
XL900: 9-litre capacity, around 4.4kW output
XL1200: 10-litre capacity, around 4.5kW output

Each runs for roughly 9 to 14 hours on a full tank depending on the burner and whether you use the baffles, so you can match the size and running cost to your room and how you intend to use the fire.

Get the Planning Right From the Start

If there is one piece of advice that matters above all others, it is this: talk to us early. The projects that go perfectly are the ones where the fire is considered at the planning stage, not added as an afterthought. Early conversations let us size the burner to the room, build in the 365mm breast depth, specify the right non-combustible boards, position the television correctly and design a wall where the fire and the screen sit in proportion to one another.

A bioethanol fire can make a media wall feel like the heart of the home rather than just a place to mount a television. With the right unit, the right preparation and a bit of expert input at the start, it is one of the most rewarding features you can build into a room.

If you are planning a media wall and want to include a real flame, get in touch with us and we will help you get it right first time.