Small Wall Mount Electric Fireplaces
Buy the best small wall mount electric fireplaces selected and recommended by interior designers. By Tara Gosselin.
A fireplace installation is no longer a tremendous chore or undertaking. These days, it's as easy as hanging a family photo. Small wall mounted electric fireplaces can be hanged anywhere, are self contained, and aesthetically flawless. They run on ethanol and burn clean and smoke free. An interesting idea for something new to add to your wall decor.
Small Wall Mount Electric Fireplaces
Buying Guide
Tara Gosselin
Interior Design Expert
Tara is a San Antonio-based award-winning landscape architect, writer and educator, passionate about eco-friendly solutions and growing her own food. She knows all it takes to help you create a sustainable backyard retreat that combines blissful charm with a modern take on landscaping.
Small wall mount electric fireplaces are the best when it comes to creating stunning focal points in rooms with restricted floor space. As a matter of fact, they are also known as "stunning art in motion." If you are thinking of getting a unit for your home, you would be required to make several decisions from size to color and features.
To make the selection process a breeze and enjoyable, check out our buying guide below:
You need to remember that a tiny electric fireplace can't be expected to heat up massive rooms or an entire home. If you require a heating appliance for a small room like a bedroom, condo or apartment, then you can go ahead and purchase a small fireplace.
The room where you'll be adding an electric fireplace into should have an outlet that can carry the electric load of an electric fireplace. We suggest you consult with an electrician and have the professional produce a dedicated circuit to ensure your appliance doesn't overload the existing circuit. Although it is not necessary, it's a wise move to check with the professionals before making a purchase.
After you've decided that you want an electric fireplace, the first thing you need to do is measure where the appliance will reside. Don't just consider the spot where it'll sit. Instead, check the furniture that will be in the same room. What you don't want is your room to look and feel cramped.
To avoid such scenario, here is a list of the most useful features of wall mount electric fireplaces:
- Adjustable Thermostat - An adjustable thermostat works like the thermostat for ordinary air conditioners. It allows you to adjust the rate of the heat that's released into your space.
- Brightness Control - Perfect for people who enjoy taking a quick nap by the electric fireplace, a brightness control feature will give you the ability to control the dimness or brightness of the flames projected onto the screen to ensure it's suitable to whatever you are doing. This will prove to be useful when you read a book by your electric fireplace.
- Flame-Only Operation - This may be a feature you already know of as it's pretty common for quality electric fireplaces. As its name implies, it will only project flames without giving off actual heat. This is for users with centralized heaters but who wish to enhance the ambiance of their living spaces.
- Digital Controls - You may think that this will take away the charm of traditional fireplaces. But, think again as digital controls offer the utmost convenience. Yes, there are electric fireplaces available that come with their own remote controls!
Nowadays, even small wall mount electric fireplaces come with myriads of features that ensure energy efficiency, safety, and convenience of users. Because of this, it's so easy for you to get overwhelmed with the choices available which result in you skipping features that you actually are in need of.
Firstly they are totally efficient - no heat escapes your home and no gases are released. This saves on installation costs as well as energy.
They’re also eco-friendly, which is important these days, and a very safe option for people with children and pets. This is because they stay cool even when in use (only the heating vent gets a little warmer), making them the safest options on the marketplace.
Finally, in comparison to traditional fireplaces, they are far less messy – there’s no need to chop wood and no danger of ash!
The growing market for electric fireplaces offers consumers great choice, but also throws up many questions. When purchasing one, there are a number of different things to think about. Here, we outline the key questions to ask yourself, and the options available to you.
A basic question, but the first one on the list. Most electric fireplaces give off heat, and the level of this heat can be adjusted by you. They tend to come with remote controls, which is perfect for the summer season, as you can turn the heat down according to the temperature around you. Some electric fireplaces also have built-in thermostats that will maintain a set temperature in the room.
However, it may be that you only want the visual look of a fire and no heat at all. People who live in a very hot climate tend to favor this approach. There are fireplaces that provide this option for you, and as you’d expect, they are cheaper to purchase as well.
The maximum size for any electric fireplace to work efficiently is about 1,500 square feet, which is more than enough for most rooms. Take a look at the area you are installing the fireplace. If it’s around 1,000 square feet, then you should opt for a fireplace with an Infrared Quartz Unit. These deliver infrared heat through invisible rays. The rays warm the objects they touch, rather than the surrounding air. Let’s face it, you want the heat to go on your sofa, not just the air around it!
If you have less space, then you should go for fireplaces that have fan-forced coil heaters. They contain a silent fan that blows air over the heated coils and the heated air comes out of a vent. This vent can be at the top, bottom, or front of the fireplace.
Something else to keep in mind when looking at your space is the ceilings. If your room has high ceilings, the fireplace may not be as effective because the heat will be retained differently. In fact, for those with larger spaces to cover, consider a newer build on the market – ceramic heaters.
These contain both ceramic plates and aluminum. When electricity passes through the ceramic, it is heated. The heat is then absorbed by the aluminum and a fan blows the hot air into your room. Despite the small size of these, they actually give off a great deal of heat and are regarded as highly energy efficient.
Most electric fireplaces can be plugged into a standard household outlet. However, you need to make sure that this outlet is on a dedicated circuit breaker or fuse. This means it’s not sharing the circuit with any other outlets.
If you were to plug an electric fireplace into a shared outlet, you could overload the circuit and create a real safety hazard.
Take a good look at where you’re planning to set up your fireplace and speak to an electrician if need be. Is there an easily accessible outlet? Don’t think you can use an extension cord either – this is a massive no-no!
From a safety point of view, you’ll need to make sure that the fireplace is kept clear of fabrics that may overheat and ignite. Even though there is no real fire, which means less of a hazard, you still don’t want flammable fabrics to get caught within the heating vents.
To create a really homely feel, you can get a mantel fireplace. It’ll allow you to put ornaments and other items near the fireplace, so it becomes a more welcoming feature. This is especially important if the wall around your fireplace is bare, because that can make your fireplace seem small. The same applies if the color is completely plain, although this can be negated if you have things like pictures on the wall.
A mantel fireplace is extremely easy to set up. You put it together in a similar way to flat-pack furniture and insert the fireplace, which plugs into an outlet.
Your electric fireplace will probably be a core part of the room! Most people have it in the communal or living room, and want everybody to gravitate towards it. This means you will want things near it.
A prime example is your TV. Many people like to be able to watch TV and keep warm by the fireplace at the same time. Many adverts have been created of people cozily huddled by the fireplace while watching a movie together!
This is fine – generally, all electric fireplaces are safe to install under TVs. However, the distance between the top of the fireplace and the bottom of the TV needs to be at least 12 inches. Check that the dimensions of your room allow this.
If you want to be practical, you can actually get a free-standing fireplace that doubles up as a media cabinet. Essentially these are TV stands with an electrical fireplace, and as they have to follow the correct standards, the minimum 12-inch gap mentioned above will always exist.
If you are having a TV nearby, it’s best to select a fireplace with a bottom or front heat. This reduces the chance of the heat blowing towards the TV.
One of the safety benefits of electric fireplaces is the lack of a real flame. This means no harmful emissions and no risk to children or pets. But don’t think this means you can’t have a true flame effect.
In many cases, LED lights and mirrors are used to create a realistic flame look. Long-lasting LED lights consume little energy and don't need to be replaced until around 50,000 hours of use.
The choice for you is what type of visual you want. The classic option is the one which looks like a regular fire. However there are modern fireplaces which change flame color – you can control this at will. Perhaps you want a different color to suit your mood or the season. Alternatively, if you have a mantel fireplace and the ornaments on top of it are ever-changing, you could adjust the flame color accordingly.
There are also various effects you can add. For example, if you want a bit of flickering, there are fireplaces that use rotating mirrors for this. Some will give you a ribbon flame effect. This is done by using a fan to blow air over a piece of ribbon to simulate dancing flames, while a bulb illuminates it from below.
You might prefer an effect which doesn’t look like fire at all. Instead, you can use lightbulbs under loose pebbles to create a smoldering look – this makes it seem as if the fire has been burning for a long time
Technology has developed to a level where you can have pretty much any type of effect. Just be conscious that the more extravagant options tend to be costly.
- Do I need heat, or do I just want the fireplace ‘look’? People in hot climates are likely to have less of a need for heat.
- What’s the best installation method for me? Do I want something permanent or portable? A wider wall lends itself to a built-in fireplace, whereas a wall with less space means you’re better off with a mounted one or an insert – which can still look high quality!
- How big is my room? Fan-forced coil fireplaces are best for areas around 400-500 square feet, while Infrared Quartz Fireplaces are best suited for rooms around 1,000 square feet.
- Are my circuits set up for a fireplace? If not, am I willing to pay to get these set up?
- What will be around my fireplace? Will it be the central attraction? A mantel fireplace is a great way to get ornaments around the fire, while a free-standing fireplace can hold a TV.
- What type of flame do I prefer – regular or multi-colored?
Once you’ve answered the key questions above, you should be in a great place to make your electric fireplace purchase. There’s no doubt that it will bring a great ambiance to your home and will do so with very little maintenance needed from your side. Good luck!