No, but I'm in S. FL, and the few people I know that have one, have looked into getting it removed. If you're lucky, you'll get cool 5 nights when you an use it... maybe, and probably no days... maybe 1 every few years.

yes/no. we have 3 they are real but they arent operational. one we have candles in.

I've never cared one way or the other about a fireplace. When we bought our house, the builder included a gas fireplace that proved to be ugly, inefficient and unused. I grew to hate the sight of it! We remodeled the family room space a few years ago and considered whether or not to keep a fireplace. We ended up putting a new one (much better quality and design) in our "sunroom" space. It's quite lovely and we do use it, but truthfully we only did it for resale considerations.