Add instant warmth to any room in Franklin County.

Plug-in electric inserts and freestanding stoves are the least expensive option—often $200 to $1,000 for the unit itself, with no professional installation required beyond plugging into an existing outlet. Built-in electric fireplaces and wall-mount units that require a dedicated circuit typically run $1,500 to $4,000 installed, once you factor in a licensed electrician running a new 120V or 240V line, any framing or finish work, and the unit itself. Because there's no chimney, flue, or gas line involved, electric installations in Franklin County are generally the fastest and least invasive of any fuel type—most jobs are done in a day.

A simple plug-in electric insert or stove typically doesn't require a permit since it uses an existing outlet like any other appliance. If your installation calls for a new dedicated circuit—common with larger built-in units or wall-mounted models—an electrical permit is usually required through your local municipality's code office (Chambersburg, Waynesboro Borough, Greencastle Borough, and Shippensburg each handle their own permitting under the PA Uniform Construction Code; unincorporated townships route through the county). A licensed electrician pulling the permit as part of the install is the norm and keeps everything code-compliant if you ever sell the home.

Most electric fireplaces are rated to heat 400 to 1,000 square feet as supplemental zone heat—they're not designed to replace a furnace, but to take the edge off a chilly family room or finished basement while your primary heat source handles the rest of the house. In a lot of Franklin County's older farmhouses and split-levels, that's exactly the role electric fills: warming the room you're actually sitting in without running the whole-house system harder. For a larger open floor plan, look at higher-wattage units or talk to a local dealer about placement—a single unit in a large great room may leave far corners cold.

No. An electric fireplace draws directly off your home's electrical service, so if the power goes out, it goes out with everything else. Franklin County sees its share of winter ice storms move through the Cumberland Valley, and outages can stretch for hours or, in a bad storm, days. If you're installing electric purely for ambiance and zone heat, that's not a problem. But if you're counting on backup heat during outages, pair the electric unit with a wood stove, wood insert, or gas fireplace elsewhere in the home—those are the fuel types that keep working when the grid doesn't.

Gas delivers real heat output and can be configured with a battery-backup ignition system to run during outages, but it requires either a natural gas line or a propane tank and proper venting. Electric requires neither—no gas line, no flue, no clearance-to-combustible rules—which makes it the simpler, faster install in homes without existing gas service or a chimney. In Franklin County, where propane is common outside natural gas territory but not every home is plumbed for it, electric is often the practical answer for a basement, bedroom, or secondary living space where running gas line isn't worth the cost. For a primary heat source in the main living area, gas usually wins on output; for supplemental heat almost anywhere else in the house, electric is hard to beat on simplicity.

An electric insert is built to slide into an existing masonry fireplace opening, giving you flame effect and heat without touching your chimney (the flue stays capped, since there's no combustion or venting to worry about). A wall-mount electric fireplace hangs flush on the wall like a large TV and works well in newer construction or remodels where there's no existing fireplace opening. An electric stove is a freestanding cabinet-style unit that mimics a traditional wood stove's footprint—a popular choice for older Franklin County homes where the look of a stove matters but running a chimney doesn't make sense. All three plug into a standard outlet or a dedicated circuit depending on the model's wattage.

Most electric fireplaces draw around 1,500 watts on the heat setting, which works out to roughly 15 cents an hour on a typical Met-Ed residential electric rate—a few dollars for an evening of use. Running one as flame-only, with the heater off, uses a fraction of that. Compared to running a whole-house furnace harder to compensate for a drafty room, using an electric fireplace for zone heat in the room you're actually occupying is usually the cheaper option over the course of a winter, even though the appliance itself doesn't produce nearly the BTU output of a wood or gas unit.

For plug-in units, most homeowners handle the placement themselves and don't need a contractor at all. For built-in or wall-mount installations that require new electrical work, you want a licensed electrician, and ideally one working alongside a hearth retailer who carries electric fireplace lines and can advise on placement, mantel surrounds, and framing. Local dealers along the US-11 and PA-16 corridor serving Chambersburg, Waynesboro, and Greencastle typically handle both the appliance and the coordination with an electrician, which simplifies the project compared to sourcing the unit yourself and hiring a separate contractor.

It's a closer call than it looks. Pellet stoves from brands sold regionally like Energex, Hamer Pellet Fuel, and Greene Team Pellet Fuel burn compressed wood pellets and produce real heat output, but they need electricity to run the auger and combustion blower—so like an electric fireplace, a pellet stove goes dark in a power outage unless you add a battery backup. Electric fireplaces have no fuel to buy, load, or store, and no ash to clean, but produce far less heat than a pellet stove and are better suited to supplemental zone heat than to carrying a room through a Franklin County winter on their own. If you want lower-maintenance ambiance with modest heat, go electric. If you want meaningful heat output without a chimney and don't mind loading a hopper, a pellet stove is the stronger choice.

Yes—with an asterisk. Fireplaces are hot and TVs don't like heat. Either put a mantel between them to deflect rising warmth, or choose a fireplace with heat-management technology that creates a cool zone on the wall above—the wall stays around 125 degrees, barely warm, while the room still gets full heat. If you like clean lines and don't want a mantel, heat management is the answer.

No—that's its superpower. An electric fireplace needs a wall and an outlet, period. No vent pipe, no gas line, no clearances to design around, which is why it works in bedrooms, offices, apartments, and walls where venting a gas or wood unit would be impractical or impossible. Installation is typically the simplest and least expensive of any fireplace type.

If you're putting a fire in your house on purpose, it's best to work with an expert. Unless you're genuinely experienced in framing, gas line, vent pipe, and the national code on clearances to combustibles, have a professional do it—and ideally the same company that sells you the fireplace, so warranty, service, and liability all live under one roof.

On average, a fireplace adds back to the home about the same amount you spent installing it. Add the monthly savings from heating the rooms you actually use instead of the whole house—often hundreds of dollars a year—and the value case is strong before you even count what a fire does for how your family uses the room.