We got an electric fireplace for our basement family room, where venting would have been an issue for a gas fireplace. Electric fireplaces have come a long way. I recommend going to a showroom where the various models are set up and you can see (and feel) their heating capacity. Though in this heat, its a bit unreal to experience it. This place has a good showroom in Chantilly. https://fireside.com/pages/store-locator

I have two and I love them! Some are awful but there are some great ones out there that look real and blow warm air - no venting necessary

We love our gas fireplace that previous owner installed. It’s easy to turn on and off the gas in the wall with a big key. It’s very easy to light the pilot light for the winter. It’s so cozy to relax in a bean bag right in front of it and read a good book. It’s also enjoyable to do homework by it or watch TV by it. It warms you up. We’ve also slept by it when we had one extended power outage. It was like easy camping in front of a fire. There’s a cage all around the marble slab so everyone stays back at a safe distance. The logs look real nowadays. Friends though it was a real fire, but we never have to chop wood!

We have a neighbor in a townhome community that got one like the link below. We have walk-out basements where the basement is underground on the front of the house, but ground level on the back of the house. The problem is that if you keep the basement at a reasonable temp, the first and second floors get way too hot. So we tend to keep the thermostat set so that the two fully above-ground levels are comfortable. That means that the basement is usually cold.

Our neighbors redid their basement into a gameroom for their tweens and it's nice. They added the console so that when the kids are down there, they can turn it on and have the basement at a comfortable temp to be in there for a while. My kids have been over there and say that the console works great for keeping their basement comfortable. Ours is usually cold. We need to redo our basement and we'll probably get one of these, too. Right now, we have old terrible carpet and I don't want to put a heater of any type on the carpet, but when we redo, we'll get LVP there (which will also help with the mild dampness) and put the console heater and it will be much nicer.

https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/latitude-run-philmont-80-tv-stand-for-tvs-up-to-90-with-electric-fireplace-included-w110212542.html

We have a wood-burning fireplace we never use. I’d happily switch it to electric but for the cost. The fireplace looks really nice though, adds character. So sure, why not?

Not worth giving up the floor space/design flexibility for

I haven’t had a real fireplace for nearly 20 years. I would prefer a gas one, but that form isn’t allowed in any of the condos we are looking at. I would get an electric one. I know they can look bad, but there are ones with more realistic “flames” and even crackling sounds.

We would have done this before, but we’ve been renting in a building that doesn’t even allow space heaters.

We love ours. No, it’s nothing like the real thing, but it’s fun and relaxing at all on its own. If you expect it to be like a real fireplace, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re just looking for a cozy, relaxing, focal point then you might enjoy it. Ours is very modern looking, which matches with our style. A more traditional one might look odd.

My parents have one and I don't like it. I grew up with a wood fireplace and it's way too far from what that looks like. I'd rather get a space heater.

Our house had one when we bought it. DH was disappointed because he wanted the real thing. Lo and behold, we use it all the time. Pretty much any cold winter night when we’re watching tv, we turn it on. It gives off enough heat to warm up the room and is so cozy.

Anonymous wrote:I’m considering it. I had a gas fireplace put in my previous home in 2020 and from start to finish it was over $10,000 and we already had gas there. I’m not willing to pay that again. I saw some nice looking electric ones on Wayfair and I’m probably gonna pull the trigger for one in the next year.

Thinking about it too -- mainly b/c we never use our gas fireplace logs (installed by the previous owner) b/c we don't like lighting it (feels dangerous) and we have to have the flu open when it is on, so it sucks all the heat OUT of the house just to have the benefit of seeing real flames! What's the point of that? The house gets colder when the logs are lit. So, we keep the flu closed and the firelogs OFF. BUT, with an electric fireplace, we'd have no gas emissions, and we'd likely get some heat out of it.

My DH has a faux fireplace/electric heater in his basement home office. It puts out a lot of heat. It's not the greatest to look at. But, if we got one that fit our fireplace, I think it would have better optics. We would have to pay someone to remove the existing gas logs and block off the gas valve, plus install an outlet. So, converting a gas fireplace log set to electric fireplace is going to cost some $$ too... and we haven't wanted to spend that yet.

Our cheapest solution would be to set up one of the multi-candle sets in front of the fireplace that we have and call it a day. Still, there is pollution from the candle-burning.... so for now we haven't done anything.

I bought one this winter and use it all the time. It’s probably one of my favorite purchases ever. That said, it’s in a small room so it can actually heat the room. I don’t think it could actually heat a large room with high ceilings.

We have one and use it all the time. We love it.

Get a portable space heater. Much more flexible for heating.

Real fire is hard to beat for entertainment, though.

I just put the TV on loop - there are many great fireplace videos on Youtube. Crackling, and all!