Electric Fireplace

Overview

An electric fireplace is a space heater that also fakes the look of a wood fire. It does two unrelated things at once: a fan-forced resistive heater warms the room, and a separate lit, moving optical assembly behind the glass throws a flickering flame illusion. The two are independent, so the flame can run on its own in summer with the heat switched off.

Everything mounts in a steel Housing with a tempered Tempered Glass Front that the viewer looks through. The heater exhausts through a Heat Outlet Grille, and a molded Molded Log Set sits in front of the flame screen to complete the look. There is no real combustion anywhere in the unit, so it needs no flue and vents nothing but warm air.

How it works

Heat comes from the Heating Module module: a Heating Element glows when energized and a Blower Motor pushes room air across it and out the grille. A Thermal Fuse cuts power if the element ever overheats, and an Anti-Tip Switch kills it if the unit is knocked over. A thermostat sensor lets the control cycle the heat to hold a target room temperature.

The flame is pure optics. In the Flame Effect assembly, an LED Light Bar shines up onto a faceted Faceted Mirror Drum turned slowly by the Drum Drive Motor. As the drum rotates, its facets sweep the reflected light across a translucent Flame Diffuser Screen, and that moving pattern of light reads to the eye as dancing flames above a lit Lit Ember Bed.

The Control Board & Remote board ties it together: it switches the two heat stages through relays, dims the flame LEDs, runs the auto-off timer, and takes commands from the front panel or the handheld IR Remote through an IR receiver.