An electric fireplace is a type of fireplace that converts electricity into heat. It differs from other types of fireplace, such as wood burning and gas, because there’s no real fire in an electric fireplace.
As a result an electric fireplace must be able to create the flames and generate the heat another way. Many electric fireplaces use lights alongside a rotating bar of mirrors to reflect the light onto the back of a screen to produce the effect of the flames.
There’s no heat produced from the components inside an electric fireplace that create the flame effects.
Therefore many electric fireplaces also use a conventional fan forced heating system to generate the heat along with the flame effects to complete the fireplace experience.
In a conventional fan forced heating system air is drawn in over a heating element and the warm air is blown back out the front of the unit.
We have an electric fireplace stove and it uses this fan forced heating system. The heater is located at the base of our electric fireplace.
There’s a blower at the back of this compartment that sucks in air from the back of the stove and forces it over a heating element.
Hot air is then blown out into the room from the fireplace.
Here’s a video showing you this fan forced heater in action:
Our particular model of electric fireplace has two heat settings: high and low. This changes how hot the heating element gets and therefore how hot the air coming out of the fireplace is.