The sheer aesthetic appeal of a classic, old-fashioned fireplace is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, these beautiful home installations are often quite expensive and cumbersome, particularly in times of economic hardship. Credit crunches and the current recession are making it difficult to get the perfect fireplace for your home, as you have to worry about the fireplace itself as well as maintenance fees, accessories, and the recurring and consistent costs of fuel. This expense seems unnecessary, and may even be a little daunting. So, what should you do? Consider investing in a heating device that is affordable, fairly lightweight and portable, easy to install, and fuel-efficient; a heating device like an electric fireplace.

There are three cardinal reasons why an electrical fireplace is a cost effective method to warm your home.

It is electrically powered, which means it relies on an energy source that is significantly less expensive than burning wood, oil, or gas.

It will provide localized, ambient heat, rather unlike your average thermostat; the common thermostat will waste ample energy and fuel in order to heat your entire home, even unoccupied rooms where heating is unnecessary.

Also, you will not need to worry about any external costs that accompany fireplace accessories and complementary equipment such as cleaning and maintenance solutions, fire pokers and ash shovels, or strike matches. The only expenses you will really need to consider with your portable fireplace is an initial purchase payment and then your monthly electric bill.

So you see, this is a fantastic way to save a ton of cash that would otherwise go towards wasting energy and inefficiently heating your home. An electrical fireplace is, clearly, the more economical and financially intelligent option.

A BTU is a standard unit of measurement that gauges the amount of heat emitted by any indoor or outdoor heating device. So, a device that emits around 5000 BTUs is capable of heating an average-sized living room of up to 500 square feet. Now, guess how much heat the average standing electric fireplace yields at normal operational levels? Bet you can't guess. 10000 BTUs. Now can you beat that?

There are a number of substantial and important reasons why an electrical fireplace is so efficient. Not only do these installations prove to be cost efficient throughout the installation process, but they are also a viable and desirable economic option in the long term. They provide highly effective, localized heat and save money as they don't waste heat in unnecessary locations. If you are careful and thoughtful with your fireplace installation, and put it in just the right location, you may never need to adjust your thermostat beyond its lowest operational level. It should be noted that it's never a good idea to turn your thermostat entirely off in the coldest months, however (you should keep it running at its lowest setting); turning your thermostat off in the winter may lead to freezing pipes, which a localized heater simply cannot warm.

Old fashioned fireplaces generally require several cumbersome accessories in order to properly maintain it, but what's worse, sometimes they even require a total overhaul of the existing chimney structure, and perhaps a complete living room renovation. And they will always need a constant supply of wood. Electricity, as an energy source, is quite cheaper; but furthermore, the amount of energy used by an electric-powered device is considerably less. In the long term, they are remarkably cost effective and economically friendly; in fact, the average monthly charge for regularly using such a fireplace is within the range of 14 cents.