How Much Will an Electric Fireplace Raise My Electric Bill?

Electric fireplaces are the perfect solution to heat your home and improve your overall home design.

As they can activate the visual flames without heating the room – the cost of running an electric fireplace depends a lot.

There are a couple of factors that affect the cost, so let’s jump straight into the average electricity costs of this type of fireplace.

Average Electricity Usage

As I said earlier, electric fireplaces can be used for design purposes (only visual flames), so the costs are lower.

When it’s set to only activate the flames without the heat – the costs are from 0.005 up to 2 cents per hour.

Pretty efficient!

Usually, you will use the fireplace to automatically turn on and off from time to time. In that mode, it costs about 9 cents an hour to heat your home.

If you’re living in a cold area, you might even run the heat at top speed. When you’re using it like that, the cost rises up to 20 cents per hour.

The average annual cost of an electric fireplace is between $50-$100 which is almost three times less than a gas fireplace.

You have to understand that in some areas the costs are more expensive because of the climate and utility costs.

Why Do Some Electric Fireplaces Cost More To Operate?

Let me put it like this – it’s all about the power.

The power of an electric fireplace is measured in BTUs, so a fireplace with a higher BTU will most likely cost more to operate.

This isn’t anything new, it’s common sense.

Some electric fireplaces don’t have an option to automatically turn on and off, so they will heat the whole time it is turned on. You can expect higher costs with a fireplace like that.

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So, Are Electric Fireplaces Considered Efficient?

Electric fireplaces are very efficient and it shouldn’t cost you more than $100 to maintain them.

Also, you won’t have to deal with cleaning dirt and ash, so it saves you, even more, time and effort.

If you want to learn more about electric fireplaces, you should take a look at our in-depth guide about electric fireplaces.