Is it cheaper to use electric heat or gas fireplace?

This is another question where the answer could be, it depends. The main 3 variables here are:

1. Your electric rates.
2. The current cost of gas.
3. How much do you use your fireplace monthly?

Remember that BTU’s are what it takes to heat your home or warm up a room. Gas fireplaces produce significantly more BTU’s/hour than an electric fireplace. That being said, the two examples below should help give you a rough idea of the operating costs of an electric vs. a gas fireplace.

Let’s talk electric first. Many electric fireplaces, stoves and inserts use 1500 watts of power on the high setting and half that, 750 watts of power on low (1500 watts converts to 5118 BTU’s/hour).

For the example below, we’ll assume:

1. The fireplace is on for 10 hours a day.
2. Heating element uses 1500 watts of power on ‘high’ and 750 watts on ‘low’ for each hour.
3. With the heating element off, the motor and LED lights consume 50 watts/hour.

Try to extrapolate your estimated cost per kWh or the length of time the fireplace is on each day. Since we’re using 10 hours a day in this example, let’s say your appliance is only operating for 5 hours a day. Then use half, or 50% of the cost listed above. If it’s on for only 2½ hours a day, use one quarter or 25% of the cost. Then, multiply that cost by the number of days in the month that you’re using the fireplace.

Next, let’s discuss operating costs for gas equipment. The burner on most gas appliances is adjustable. The more gas that’s burned, the more heat you’ll get from the fireplace. To figure an approximate cost to run the fireplace, remember these key points:

• Natural gas is measured in therms. One therm equals 100,000 BTU’s of heat.
• LP gas is measured in gallons. One gallon of LPG equals 91,500 BTU’s of heat.
• For this example, the burner size is 30,000 BTU/hour.
• For each hour of fireplace operation, figure a bit less than 1/3 of one therm of NG.

And, about 1/3 of one gallon for LPG.

• Apply your current fuel rate.
• Adjust actual usage up or down, based on burner consumption.

Let’s take a quick example. Using the numbers above, a NG fireplace operates for two hours. The rate is $1.00/per therm. For each hour of operation, figure about 30ȼ. For LP, figure roughly 33ȼ/hour if the rate is $1.00 per gallon. This is nearly 6 times more BTU’s/hour than the electric example above.