Electric Fireplaces
Updated
An electric fireplace earns its keep in two ways: the heat it puts out, and the room it creates. Most rooms have one of these covered by central heating, so the visual side is what people are really shopping for. The good news is the cheap end has caught up; the better £200-£400 units now have flame patterns that read as fire from across the room, where the £700 units used to.
The spec to know is the heat output, in kilowatts. A 2kW unit warms a 16-20 square metre room from a cold start in 20-30 minutes; 1kW is supplementary heat that takes the chill off rather than replacing the radiator. Most electric fireplaces ship with two settings (1kW and 2kW) and a flame-only mode for ambience without the heat, useful for shoulder seasons when you want the room to look right without raising the thermostat. Robert Dyas runs a strong middle bracket from £77 to £972; Living and Home covers freestanding stoves and wall-mounted units £128-£814.
We compare electric fireplaces across UK retailers daily by install type (freestanding, wall-mounted, inset suite, log-burner stove style), flame technology, heat output and price band. The grid below filters by these specifications so the unit you pick fits the room as much as the wallet. read more…
79 Electric Fireplaces from 5 UK Retailers in May ’26
Heat output by room size
Most electric fireplaces output 1kW or 2kW. The better units split it across two settings so you can use the unit for ambience alone, with zero heat. 1kW takes the chill off a small lounge or bedroom. 2kW is the practical heat output for a 16-22 square metre living room and replaces a small radiator from mid-October to mid-March. Anything above 2kW needs a 13A socket in good condition. Don't share that circuit with a kettle or vacuum. Be honest about how often the heat will actually be used: most homes leave the unit on flame-only 80 percent of the season.
Flame technology and what looks like fire
Three flame technologies dominate the £150-£500 bracket. LED-lit reflective discs sit at the cheap end. A mirror drum spinning behind a holographic screen is the mid-range workhorse. Water-vapour units produce real mist for the flame to refract through, the premium tier. The mirror-drum units in the £200-£400 range read as fire from a normal sitting distance. The LED-disc units betray themselves at six feet. Water-vapour fires are uncannily good close-up and warm-feeling, but they need a refill every 4-8 hours of use and they're priced from £600 up.
Install types: freestanding, wall, inset, stove
Freestanding electric fires sit in front of an existing chimney breast or against a flat wall, useful in rented flats since they need only a 13A plug. Wall-mounted units (40 to 75 inches across) read as decorative TV-style features and go straight onto the plasterboard with a bracket. Inset suites are designed to drop into a brick chimney breast or a purpose-built media wall and need a recess of at least 100mm depth. Log-burner stove-style units in painted steel give the country-cottage look in a flat that's never had a flue. Robert Dyas covers all four formats, Living and Home is strong on the stove-style units, and garden sanctuary stocks the wall-mounted line.
Where the value sits
Sub-£150 is plug-in LED with reflective fire; works as nightlight ambience but reads as plastic in daylight. £150-£350 is the sweet spot, with proper mirror-drum flame, two heat settings, real-feeling flicker pattern, and decent remote controls. £350-£600 brings the larger wall-mount units, deeper recessed fireboxes, and the built-in look without the install hassle. Above £600 you're into water-vapour territory or branded inset suites (Dimplex, Be Modern); these justify the price if the room makes the fireplace its main feature.
What we'd skip
Cheap units sold purely on heat output (3kW) and styled to look like real wood-burners are usually the same internals as a £150 unit with a different fascia. Smart-home-controlled voice-activated fires are a price tax; you'll use the remote anyway. Decorative-only fireplaces with no heat element at all are a difficult buy except in flats where flame-only is the entire purpose. A unit that looks like real fire and outputs real heat is the goal; discount aggressively from anything that does only one of those things.
