why gas fireplaces have long orange flames while gas stoves have very short blue flames.
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Essentially, impurities, the material being burned, and uneven combustion. A clean hydrogen flame is almost invisible. When burning a propane flame it is blue and purple when it has good even combustion and ionizes the gasses in the flame and it turns blue. Orange flames are more uneven combustion as well as different fuel being burned.
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By changing things like how much gas and how much is let out as well as oxygen content you can change how a flame behaves. For a fireplace you want pretty long yellow fire, so you adjust the pressure and mixture for that. For a stove you want hot and for the fire not to go a foot above the stove, so you adjust for that.
Because gas fireplaces are not intended to be an efficient source of heat, they are made to replicate the appearance of a wood fire.
A blue flame means the gas is being burned efficiently with the correct fuel-to-oxygen ratio. A yellow flame means there is too much fuel and not enough oxygen, so the fuel does not burn completely. Some particles of carbon remain, which incandesce, glow yellow, and are released as soot and smoke.
Orange flames in a gas burning device can indicate improper fuel-oxygen mixture as it’s not combusting properly. This can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. Call your utility/gas provider/maintenance personnel and get it checked for the problem!
Wood-burning fireplaces have orange flames because of the sodium present in wood, btw!
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