It’s not recommended to plug your electric fireplace into a surge protector, power strip or extension cable, but can you plug an electric fireplace into a regular outlet?

The majority of electric fireplaces can be plugged straight into a regular home outlet without any other requirements.

We simply needed to plug it into one of our home electrical outlets, turn the outlet on and electric fireplace could be used straight away.

When buying an electric fireplace look for details on what way it receives power. If the specification for the electric fireplace states that it’s plug-in then it will be able to plug into your standard home electrical outlet.

However, some electric fireplaces need to be direct-wired but can be bought with an optional adapter to use in a regular outlet.

Some ‘built-in’ electric fireplaces that are designed for in-wall installations or catered towards bespoke installations, for example entertainment centers, typically come ready to be hard-wired into your home electrics.

In this case when buying an electric fireplace you would need to look out for direct-wire (or a similar term), which would describe that the fireplace isn’t designed to be plugged straight into a regular outlet.

However as shown in the above image, electric fireplaces that are predominantly direct-wired may also come with a plug-in kit or can come as an optional extra. This will also allow you to use this type of electric fireplace with a regular outlet.

Other than ‘built-in’ electric fireplaces many of the other types of electric fireplaces will be plug-in and will simply need to be plugged into a regular outlet to work straight out of the box. These can include:

• Electric fireplace TV stands
• Electric fireplace stoves
• Electric fireplace log sets
• Electric fireplace inserts
• Electric fireplace heaters

Other types of electric fireplace can also be plug-in such as electric fireplace mantels. See of all our electric fireplace buying guides here for more information.