Start with heating coverage (measured in BTUs or watts) for your room size, then consider style — mantel, corner, wall-mounted or media console — and how realistic you'd like the flame effect to look. Look for CSA or UL certification, since this confirms the unit meets Canadian and North American electrical safety standards, and check the plug type and voltage match a standard household outlet.

Electric fireplaces work well as supplemental, zone heating for a single room rather than as a replacement for your furnace. They're especially useful during shoulder seasons or in rooms that run cold, since you can warm just the space you're using without heating the whole house.

Most residential units are built to comfortably heat a room in the 400–500 sq. ft. or provide supplemental heat to a 1,000 sq. ft. room on a standard 1500-watt heat setting, though this varies with ceiling height, insulation and room layout. If you're heating an open-concept or larger space, look for a model with a higher wattage or plan to use it alongside your existing heating.

Yes — electric fireplaces convert essentially all of the electricity they draw into heat, with no combustion loss up a flue the way a gas or wood fireplace has. Because you can heat just the room you're in, many customers find they use them to reduce reliance on whole-home heating during milder weather.

Most standard units draw around 1500 watts on their heat setting, in line with a typical space heater, and run on a standard household outlet. Running the flame effect on its own, without the heater, uses only a small fraction of that since it's powered by LED lighting.