Back in the previous house, the fireplace wasn't much use at keeping anything but your backside warm, cos it pulled in so much cold air from all the gaps, vents and cracks in the walls, doors, ceilings and floors that it was still frickin' cold in there, plus a weeksworth of coal-related ovoid briquette things cost the same as running the gas for the full month, so in the winter gone, I just stuffed bubblewrap up the chimney and stopped using the fireplace...
[insert freezing one's nips off smiley here]
Now a woodstove on the other hand, that really would be a nice thing to have, but, the chimney & fireplace in this house has been plugged up and sealed off, and there's not enough money to have it all opened up and refitted for a stove, though there is evidence there was a gas fire in there at somepoint (still a flue cap in place on the stack), but there's no gas going that way any more so even that's out of the question, so, it's central heating all round, and even though the boiler's working now (for the sake of a flippin' CR2032 cell), the boiler is to be replaced "soon", not sure how soon, but that's all I've heard so far...