The size of the room you’re looking to heat can impact on which type of electric fireplace heater you’ll need to choose.

Electric fireplaces with fan heaters are typically able to heat areas up to 400sqft.

Electric fireplaces with infrared heaters are typically able to heat areas up to 1000sqft.

Fan heaters can take a longer time to heat a room but are able to leave residual heat within the room once turned off. The heat from infrared heaters is able to heat a larger area and can be felt instantaneously, but are generally found in the more expensive models of electric fireplace and don’t leave any residual heat once turned off.

The majority of electric fireplaces use a conventional fan heater rather than infrared.

When buying an electric fireplace:

• If you don’t see any reference to the heater type in the title or description of the product then it’s probably using a fan heater.
• If a product is using an infrared heater then it’s a selling point and can more commonly be found described with the title of the product or its description.