Electric Fireplace Inserts are in actuality very simple systems. They use 3 main components:

A heater/blower

A rotating light bar that either uses bulbs or LEDs

A flame board that creates the flame effect.

The heating units on inserts typically are ceramic with a forced fan system. They genrate anywhere from 1000 to 1500 watts of power, and that translates in anywhere from 3500 – 5000 BTUs of heating power. Typically a heater of this nature can heat a room of between 300 – 500 Square feet.

Today there are some newer styles that actually use infrared heating cores, that are both powerful and silent, but as they are IR based, they emit an orange light, that we do not find overally appealing.

Today’s fireplace inserts also have decent control chips that allow you to have a timer mercanis,, and control flame instensty and heating power, which is great for setting teh mood and a comfortable air tempertature. Electric Firepalce INserts are also very electricty friendly, meaning that they do not cost much to operate in relation to other heating formats.

In terms of the flame effects, many electric fireplace inserts today have very realistic flame efects, this was much better then when they started in the market around 2001, where the flame looked like a wierd glow, and you could here the lights