Everyone loves the coziness and romance of a warm hearth. With an electric fireplace you can have one anywhere in your home. Electric fireplace designs have really come forward since the days when they consisted of a small plastic shell with a light bulb inside and a log design printed on the outside. Now they are used as much as important decorative elements as they are practical items.

The first thing that attracts most consumers to today's electric fireplace is the distinctive look it will give to the room. You can find models that fit any décor. If you have a traditional home, you can get an electric fireplace that comes with country or Victorian decorative features. That beautiful mantelpiece you've always wanted? Sure, you can have it with an electric fireplace. Maybe you live in a modern-design condo or townhouse. With clean, angular lines and contemporary materials, there are electric fireplace designs that will fit right in to the look of these homes, too.

The free-standing models are a natural design fit for a trend-forward home. You might even want to consider the luxurious look of one of the new wall-mounted options. Electric fireplaces come in a range of sizes, but they are all relatively lightweight and easy to move. Your electric fireplace goes with you when you move into a new home. In fact, these units are so easily portable that some people take them along to their vacation cabin or cottage. Electric fireplaces are great in those places where using or installing a wood-burning fireplace might be problematic.

Here are some advantages of having an electric fireplace rather than a wood-burning one. Everyone likes to sit by the fire on a chilly night, but did you know that the conventional wood-burning fireplace is actually not an efficient source of heat? Often it sucks much more heat up the chimney than it sends into the room. An electric fireplace is not just decorative. It serves as a heater, too. In a warm climate, it can warm the room air to just the needed temperature level. In colder places, it can supplement the heat coming from your furnace or central system. In fact, one popular use of electric fireplaces is as a cleaner, more energy-efficient insert into an existing fireplace or wood-burning stove.

Did you know your household insurance costs may be greater in some locales if you have a wood-burning fireplace in your home? It's true. Having an open flame going can be a hazard. Chimneys have to be kept free of buildup. With an electric fireplace, there's no containment of sparks, no venting of fumes, no clean up of ashes, no stacking of logs. If you've ever spent time fumbling with kindling and matches trying to get a beautiful roaring fire going, you'll appreciate one of the big pluses of an electric fireplace. An electric fireplace plugs right in to the wall, just like any other household appliance. You can get the desired flickering flame effect quickly and easily with today's electric fireplace.