Their beautiful lighting effects, versatility and ease of installation make electric fireplaces more popular than ever. With many styles and sizes to choose from and media options galore, there’s surely a spot or two in your home for an electric fireplace! But are they expensive to operate? How much heat can I expect? Are they complicated to use? These are just a few of the questions we’ll answer.
OPERATING OPTIONS
Are you thinking about an electric fireplace for your home, but a bit concerned about how much it will cost to operate? Don’t be! With the heating element turned off, you can enjoy the effects of an electric fireplace for literally a few pennies a day! In fact, with the heat turned off on your fireplace, it’s unlikely you will even notice a difference in your electric bill!
However, with the heating element on, it’s a different story. You’ve likely heard that heating with electricity can be rather expensive. This can certainly be the case, especially if the house was not designed to heat with electricity. Most WE LOVE FIRE® dealers will encourage you to think of electric heat as ‘supplemental’ to your primary heat source.
CALCULATE THE COSTS
Let’s get to the expense. This will vary significantly in different areas of the country because of the difference in regional electric rates. If you’re not sure what your current rates are, pull out last month’s electric bill and look for the kWh charge. Electricity is sold by the kilowatt hour (kWh). That’s a thousand watts of power used for one hour. If you turned on 100 watt light bulb, it would take 10 hours to use one kWh of electricity.
To find your estimated operating cost, we’ve created the chart below. Many electric fireplaces, stoves and inserts use 1500 watts of power on the high heat setting and half that, 750 watts of power on low. For the example below, we’ll assume:
- The fireplace is on for 10 hours per day.
- Heating element uses 1500 watts of power on ‘high’ and 750 watts on ‘low’ for each hour.
- With the heating element off, the motor and LED lights consume 50 watts/hour.
| ELECTRIC RATE | 5ȼ per kWh | 10ȼ per kWh | 15ȼ per kWh | 20ȼ per kWh |
| HIGH HEAT ON | 78ȼ/day | $1.55/day | $2.33/day | $3.10/day |
| LOW HEAT ON | 40ȼ/day | 80ȼ/day | $1.20/day | $1.60/day |
| NO HEAT/LED’S & MOTOR ONLY | 2.5ȼ/day | 5ȼ/day | 7.5ȼ/day | 10ȼ/day |
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’ll run an electric fireplace. This handy electric cost calculator can help you to find the cost per day, week and month.
LOTS OF ADVANTAGES!
The aesthetics and ambiance, the ease of installation, the versatility and the convenience of operating an electric fireplace are just a few reasons why they are so popular today.
Since there’s no vent pipe or chimney pipe to deal with, an electric fireplace can literally be installed anywhere in your home. They can be hung on a wall or recessed into a wall. Bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways, open stairways, foyers, and dining rooms are all great locations for an electric unit. Electrics fireplaces are perfect for installing below that big screen TV!
Most customers enjoy their electric fireplace all year long, even during the warm weather! Just turn off the heating element and enjoy the light show for just pennies a day! Many customers think the blue lighting effects and sparkling diamond chips in some electric fireplaces give a subliminal cooling effect in the summertime! And for a few pennies, why not enjoy it?
If you are looking for a little supplemental heat in a room and wondering do electric fireplaces heat, you’ll definitely be able to make an area in your home more comfortable.
EASY TO USE
Operating an electric fireplace is easier than using the remote on your TV! Click it on with heat or click it on without heat. Fair warning: the kids are not the only ones who are going to want to play around with the remote!
One last point; no more embarrassing fake flames on today’s electric fireplaces. The lighting effects are combined with many optional log styles, pebbles, clear and colored fire glass, rocks and glowing embers for the “media” inside your fireplace. It’s a truly memorable look that you’ll be proud to show family and friends.
Make plans to stop at your WE LOVE FIRE® expert and be prepared to be amazed at the effects, the styles and the quality and selection of today’s electric fireplaces! You’re gonna love ‘em!
Electric Fireplace Napoleon Element42
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