Yes! we have to start preparing for winter already – even though officially – winter doesn’t start till December – but sometimes ours start as early as October. One year – when we weren’t expecting it – we had a snowstorm in late October – yes that suxs! big time! so now we are always ahead of time – and this year we are looking at getting the electric fireplace insert replacing our gas log. Why? it’s a lot cleaner that’s for sure – and also we hear it’s a lot cheaper to run the electric fireplace with the insert. I can’t wait to see how it works and see how much savings we are going to get from it – but i’ll be sure to let everyone know. Anyone out there using electric fireplace – you check it out too.