The heater on an electric fireplace will typically consume much more energy than what is consumed by the components that create the flame effects.
An electric fireplace needs to draw a lot of power in order to generate the heat. Thankfully many models of electric fireplace allow you to enjoy the look of the flames without the heater being on.
Our electric fireplace stove has this functionality. When turning the electric stove on at the unit, the flames automatically turn on without the heat. We need to turn on more switches if we want the fireplace to start releasing heat.