Electric Fires

Electric Fires

An electric fire gives a room a focal point without a chimney, a flue, a sweep or a fuel delivery, and it installs in an afternoon. There are three shapes to choose between. Freestanding stoves at around 2kW sit in an existing hearth or against a flat wall and look like a solid fuel stove without the ash, and most run a log or coal flame effect behind glass with a remote control. Inset fires from 1.9kW drop into a standard 16 inch fireplace opening and suit a house where the fireplace is staying but the chimney is closed off. Frameless and wall-mounted models, up to 50 inches wide, hang like a television and suit a modern sitting room with no fireplace at all. The heating element is usually a two-stage 1kW or 2kW fan, and on almost every model the flame effect runs independently of it, so the fire can be on for the look through spring and summer for a few cent a day. Because there is no combustion there is no ventilation requirement, no carbon monoxide risk and no annual servicing, which is why electric fires are common in apartments and rented houses where a real fire is not an option.

Dimplex is the main name here, covering the IgniteXL frameless wall fires, the Optiflame stove range including the Tango and Club, and the Sierra wall fireplaces. Warmlite supplies the Whitby inset fire and the log-effect and Stirling stove heaters, and Heat Design the 16 inch 1.9kW electric insert.

Electric fires are bought as much for a room as for the heat, so they move with the run up to Christmas rather than with the weather, and that is when the reductions appear. The frameless wall models carry the highest prices in the heating range, which makes a cut on one worth the most in absolute terms. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on heating on sale.