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Electric Fireplaces...love or hate, tips??


Ottakee
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Right now I have a pellet fireplace insert.  I love the fire but not the pellets.

My new house has no fireplace at all but I love the looks of one.  I have heard some people love electric Fireplaces as they require no venting, just plug in, etc.  I love gas log fireplaces but that would mean a lot of work in the new house.   

I see them ranging from $100 to over $1000, some wall mounted, others free standing and all sorts of options.   If you have one what do you love or hate about it?  Wish you had done differently?  According to my reading they are quite efficient energy wise and I would use it just as a tad extra warmth to the living room and ambiance, not as a real heat source.

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I think they can be done well, but too often they are not.  I think if you're going to get one, definitely spend the extra for a more realistic look.

We have a gas potbelly stove in the living room.  It is okay...I do prefer it over an electric fireplace, but I do miss having a real fireplace.  I'm also slightly amused that every time we have lived somewhere warm, fireplaces were in our homes, but whenever we move to a cold climate, they're conspicuously absent. ? 

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I have one and love it, but we got it for the extra warmth rather than for having a "fireplace". Mine has on/off for the flames, as well as settings to turn them up, down, flickering, not, etc. I can adjust the temperature by degrees, it has a remote control, and an option for the "fire" w/o the heat as well as heat w/o the "fire." 

Ours is a TV console version, so it's got cabinets on both sides, a shelf above the "fireplace" for electronics, and the TV sits on top of it. 

The main thing we looked at (beyond the look of it) was how large a room it would warm; our living room is big & open, so we needed one that would warm a pretty large area. Once we had the square footage requirement, we just chose from the ones in that range that we liked. 

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I got a cheap, fake looking one for my fireplace that you just plug in it has a remote. That room was my dance studio and I just wanted to break the chill on some winter days. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  After teaching classes I never felt up to babysitting the fire and closing the flue. It added heat and with the fireplace screen closed it looked convincing enough, but the blower gives it away. It seems to work best in a dark-colored fireplace, so don’t even clean it first  ?

That room is now been transformed into a living room. This winter I ‘may’ update to a warmer electric firebox thing. They cost a lot more, but we’ll also use be using the room more. 

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Thanks.  I won't be moving until December but I do like fireplaces (not the work or risk of fire) so this might be an option.

We actually inheritied one from my MIL that is in a cabinet/TV stand but my kids are claiming that for the basement family room. 

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23 hours ago, HomeAgain said:



We have a gas potbelly stove in the living room.  It is okay...I do prefer it over an electric fireplace, but I do miss having a real fireplace.  I'm also slightly amused that every time we have lived somewhere warm, fireplaces were in our homes, but whenever we move to a cold climate, they're conspicuously absent. ? 

I know, right? We’re moving from the Wisconsin/Illinois border to Georgia and every house we look at online has a fireplace! SIL is building a house in brunswick, which is way far in south GA and she has TWO fireplaces.  

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37 minutes ago, Annie G said:

I know, right? We’re moving from the Wisconsin/Illinois border to Georgia and every house we look at online has a fireplace! SIL is building a house in brunswick, which is way far in south GA and she has TWO fireplaces.  

It’s because southerners are total weenies when it comes to cold. (That’s me. I hate cold. Give me heat and humidity any day but I whine like a baby in cold, damp, snowy conditions.)

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2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

It’s because southerners are total weenies when it comes to cold. (That’s me. I hate cold. Give me heat and humidity any day but I whine like a baby in cold, damp, snowy conditions.)

That may be true, but our local schools closed early Tuesday because it was 85 and humid!  So I can’t make fun of southerners who can’t handle cold weather. 

People I know in the south don’t even use their fireplaces other than as a decoration. 

Edited by Annie G
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30 minutes ago, Annie G said:

That may be true, but our local schools closed early Tuesday because it was 85 and humid!  So I can’t make fun of southerners who can’t handle cold weather. 

People I know in the south don’t even use their fireplaces other than as a decoration. 

? wow. This week has been mid 90s with major humidity. We do have air conditioning in all our buildings though. 

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40 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

? wow. This week has been mid 90s with major humidity. We do have air conditioning in all our buildings though. 

I’m not sure if our schools are all air conditioned. Our high school was built in 1925 so parts of that are probably not.

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We had gas logs in the house we just moved from. They were great. We found we used them a lot more than we would have used an actual fireplace, because we could turn them on for a little while without having to worry about leaving--just turn them off if you have to leave. They were great for taking the chill off in the mornings, even if we didn't need them all day. Most of the winter, we didn't need any other heat in the house during the day. We didn't mind if the bedrooms were cooler. Overall, our heat (which was also gas) was not very expensive, and I think the logs helped with that. They weren't as "pretty" as a real fire, but were so much less work, I was okay with that!

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On 8/30/2018 at 7:14 AM, HomeAgain said:

I think they can be done well, but too often they are not.  I think if you're going to get one, definitely spend the extra for a more realistic look.

We have a gas potbelly stove in the living room.  It is okay...I do prefer it over an electric fireplace, but I do miss having a real fireplace.  I'm also slightly amused that every time we have lived somewhere warm, fireplaces were in our homes, but whenever we move to a cold climate, they're conspicuously absent. ? 

The one time we had a fireplace in a cold climate it made the house much *colder*!

Ime, unless the fireplace is perfect you end with a draft that pulls all the warm air up the chimney and out of the house. 

With our gas fireplace the flue never seemed to be able to close tight enough when not in use.  Cold air leaked in.

Our fireplace when we lived in a mild climate was a lot better because there wasn't a drastic temperature difference inside vs outside so no draft.

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