How much electricity do these electric fireplaces draw and when boondocking, how big a genset would it require? Yes I realize you'll be burning the furnace too but I'm interested in the draw on these things.

The ones I am familiar with have a max of 1500 Watt to the heater so probably about 1700 watts

You'll need to look up the specs for the specific fireplace you have, but the 1500 watts mentioned matches the manual for mine. That's pretty much pushing the limits on a 2000 watt inverter generator and would leave you very little capacity to run anything else at the same time. While I often use my electric fireplace for heat when hooked up to shore power, I never use it while boondocking which I do a lot of in the cold shoulder seasons. I might use the fake fire for ambiance without turning the heater portion of the fireplace on, but can't see where I would want to fire up the generator for heat when I can just turn on the furnace. To run the electric heat and charge my batteries, I would need to parallel both of my champion 2000 watt generators as 1 of them wouldn't be up to the task.

If it has a UL approval tag, it can only be a maximum of 1500 watts (resistance heating elements @110 volts plus the blower and fake lights so 1700 works. Watts divided by Volts = amps. It's a resistance space heater loosely called a fireplace.The only fire would be if it shorted out...lol

Not much for the flame if you want ambiance. When you turn in the heat its just like a electric heater.

Pauljdav wrote:Not much for the flame if you want ambiance. When you turn in the heat its just like a electric heater.A not very efficient heater at that.

Electric fireplace draw | Good Sam Community

drsteve
Explorer
Jul 21, 2017
DW and I spent the winter and early spring attending RV shows, and we were amused and a bit dismayed to find that nearly anything over 20 feet now gets one of these superfluous gadgets, usually as part of an entertainment center wall. We didn't care for those either, in smaller units the wall was frequently close enough to the foot of the bed that it interfered with walking around it.
myredracer
Explorer II
Jul 21, 2017
As an alternative to a fireplace unit, you could use a recessed fan forced heater. King makes a nice one called a pic-a-watt (PAW series) that has adjustable 250 watt taps from 250 up to 1500 watts and you could set it to what your setup can handle. They also have a squirrel cage blower and are very quiet. Could use a built-in thermostat, or better, install a remote one if you can. We have two of them in our TT (bedroom & bathroom).

If it'd work for you, King also makes a kick-space heater with a pic-a-watt element and has a squirrel cage blower (other brands have a noisy propeller fan).
ScottG
Nomad
Jul 20, 2017
All of the ones I've been looking at are 1400~1500 watts.
Pauljdav
Explorer
Jul 20, 2017
SidecarFlip wrote:
Pauljdav wrote:
Not much for the flame if you want ambiance. When you turn in the heat its just like a electric heater.

A not very efficient heater at that.

Not for boondocking. Lol. I sure like it great when plugged in. It maintains the heat just fine.
darsben1
Explorer
Jul 20, 2017
SidecarFlip wrote:
Bumpyroad wrote:
electric heat/boondocking.
does not compute
bumpy

Sure it does bumpy...

Got that gas guzzling generator humming along keeping the glorified toaster hot...

ReallyLMAO:B
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 20, 2017
Bumpyroad wrote:
electric heat/boondocking.
does not compute
bumpy

Sure it does bumpy...

Got that gas guzzling generator humming along keeping the glorified toaster hot...
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Jul 20, 2017
electric heat/boondocking.
does not compute
bumpy
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 20, 2017
Pauljdav wrote:
Not much for the flame if you want ambiance. When you turn in the heat its just like a electric heater.

A not very efficient heater at that.
Pauljdav
Explorer
Jul 20, 2017
Not much for the flame if you want ambiance. When you turn in the heat its just like a electric heater.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 20, 2017
If it has a UL approval tag, it can only be a maximum of 1500 watts (resistance heating elements @110 volts plus the blower and fake lights so 1700 works. Watts divided by Volts = amps. It's a resistance space heater loosely called a fireplace.

The only fire would be if it shorted out...lol