That’s right, the flame on an electric fireplace isn’t real.

The flame is instead created using a visual screen, just like your TV, or using light from a light bulb that is refracted onto a screen to give the impression of flickering flames.

You can read more about how an electric fireplace flame works here.

If you still want to keep a real flame then an electric fireplace may not be for you. Wood burning stoves, pellet stoves and gas fireplaces all produce a real flame, and therefore others types of fireplace such as these may be more suited to you than an electric fireplace.

The flames on newer models of electric fireplace however, look very realistic. It’s worth considering whether the loss of a real flame outweighs the other benefits provided by an electric fireplace.

We’d decided that we would put an electric fireplace in a room that doesn’t currently already have a fireplace in it. This means that we’re not losing our existing open fireplace located in the living room. If we had gone for an electric fireplace insert to be placed inside the open fireplace, we would have lost the ability to have a real fire in our home.

It’s therefore worth considering whether you want an electric fireplace to replace your existing open fireplace or stove, which would remove the ability to have a real fire, or locate an electric fireplace somewhere else in your home.

We decided that we didn’t want to lose the ability to have a real fire in our living room open fireplace, and came to a conclusion that an electric fireplace would be more suited to our spare bedroom.