Do Electric Fires Heat the Room?

You might think being able to heat a room was a prerequisite for a fire. But we know from the number of times we’re asked the question that there are lots of people out there wondering, ‘do electric fires heat the room?’.

The short answer is, ‘yes, electric fires do heat your room’.

While electric fires are nice to look at and make a beautiful focal point in the room, they would represent a significant amount of prime space in your room if dedicated to something that is purely decorative and ornamental.

The good news is that as well as looking great, an electric fire will heat your room. All electric fires are equipped with heaters that send warm aim out into your home. The heater may be positioned at the top, bottom or front of the electric fire. In the case of built-in electric fires, the heater will be at the front of the fire so that the heat generated comes into the room rather than into the recess.

Electric fire heat outputs are generally somewhere between 1kW and 2kW. Many appliances offer a choice of two heat settings, so you can choose the most appropriate level of warmth for your room.

Why are people confused about whether electric fires heat the room?

We often wonder that ourselves. As we said at the outset, what would be the point of an electric fire that didn’t the room? We think the confusion must arise because:

• Nothing is being burned inside the fire.
  In an open fire, logs or coal are being burned to create heat. In a gas fire, gas is being burned to create heat. In an electric fire, nothing is being burned. Perhaps that disconnect creates the uncertainty.
• The flames themselves are not hot.
  In an electric fire, the flames are not the source of the heat. They are in today’s modern electric fires usually LED lighting. For people who are accustomed to the hot flames of a real fire or a gas fire, that may be the root of the question.

Electric fires don’t have to heat the room

Perhaps another factor that causes the confuse over whether electric fires give out heat is that they don’t always have to. In many cases, the electric fire flame effect can be used independently of the heater. This means you get all the atmosphere and ambiance of the flame effects (many of the best electric fires come with a choice of different flame colours) without necessarily having to create heat in the room. Perfect for a cosy night in if the room temperature is already cosy enough.