On the other hand, there are a few things that you don’t need for an electric fireplace that you would typically need for other types of fireplace. These include:

• A chimney or flue.
• A vent.

An electric fireplace differs from other types of fireplaces because:

• There’s no real flame.
• A fresh supply of oxygen isn’t required.
• A continuous supply of solid fuel isn’t required.

  Chimney or Flue

  An electric fireplace doesn’t have a real flame, and so there’s no requirement to have a chimney or flue because no waste gases are released. (I’ve shown in detail here how the flames on an electric fireplace work.)

  Other types of fireplace, such as open fireplaces or wood burning stoves, utilize a real flame to produce heat. A real fire releases byproducts such as smoke and gases as a result of burning the fuel (in this case it’s wood).

  An electric fireplace uses electricity as the source of fuel. Using electricity to produce heat doesn’t release any waste products and so no form of chimney or flue is required to vent waste gases from your home.

  You therefore don’t need to have an existing chimney or flue to be able to enjoy an electric fireplace in your home, and so it also doesn’t have to be placed inside an existing open fireplace, even if you do have one.