Should you get an electric fireplace for your home? It may be the most economical, energy efficient and ecologically viable heating option available, but not for you. You need to weigh how your house is built, the climate in your area, and your local heating options carefully.

If an entire house needs heating, an electric fireplace is not as cost-efficient as other combustion systems. On the other hand, if you don't need centralized home heating, or just heating a single room. it's a great option.

Electric heating may also generate a larger carbon footprint, although you may not have found about it before. If your town has electric plants that use fossil fuels, these plants waste energy in the process of producing and transmitting electricity. An electric fireplace is ideal if you only need to heat one room at a time, or if you don't have space to install a real fireplace. It's also feasible if you only want it for nostalgic or decorative reasons, and you don't need it to provide centralized heating.

For added decoration, you can get fireplace mantel surrounds for your fireplace. They also make it more closely resemble a real coal-fired fireplace. The labor needed to install or replace mantel surrounds will require a lot of work hours, but little skill.

Mantels also function as an additional set of shelves. In many cases, these faux fireplaces may already come with their own fireplace mantel surrounds. If you do need to replace the surround, or decide to get a different design, you may have to get it customized. But this should be no problem since it's easy to have customized surrounds made, especially online.

You can choose to get stone fireplace mantels for a more solid looking fireplace. If the fireplace has to stay in a specific place, this might be the preferable thing to do. It will also have a more imposing presence in a room.

An electric fireplace is ideal if you are only heating one room, or if you don't have place to install a real fireplace. It's also feasible if you only want it for nostalgic or decorative reasons, and you don't need it to provide centralized heating. Fireplace mantel surrounds also function as an additional set of shelves. You can opt to get stone fireplace mantels for a fireplace with a more stable and convincing appearance.