Gas or electric is the first fork in the road for almost every fireplace project we quote, and the honest answer depends more on the building than on taste. A gas fireplace is a real heating appliance with a real flame that needs a gas line, a vent to the outdoors and a permit. An electric fireplace is a sealed box with LEDs and a space heater that needs an outlet. One warms a room. The other warms a corner of it. This guide puts the two side by side on heat, running cost, installation, realism, safety, maintenance and resale, then walks through four typical projects from Manhattan to Westchester and tells you which way we would go.
The short answer
If you own a house with gas service and an exterior wall or roof to vent through, a direct vent gas fireplace is the better fireplace: 16,000 to 40,000 BTU of real heat, a flame nobody mistakes for anything else, and value a buyer recognizes. If you are in a co-op or condo, a rental, or a room with no path to the outdoors, electric is the fireplace you can actually have, and the premium units look far better than they did five years ago. Pick gas for heat and permanence. Pick electric for simplicity and board approval.
Key takeaways
- Heat is the big gap: a direct vent gas fireplace delivers 16,000 to 40,000 BTU; an electric unit tops out near 5,000 BTU on 120V and about 8,500 on 240V.
- Gas needs a gas line, a vent to the outdoors, a licensed master plumber and a permit. Electric needs an opening and one dedicated circuit. That is where most of the cost difference lives.
- Per hour of ambiance, electric is cheap. Per BTU of heat delivered all winter, gas costs less in our region.
- Realism ranks gas first, water vapor second, premium LED third. If you cannot do gas and realism matters, budget for Opti-Myst.
- Gas glass gets hot and ships with a barrier screen. Electric glass stays cool, which makes it the easy choice for a playroom or a TV wall.
- In NYC the choice is direct vent gas or electric. Vent-free and new wood burning are not allowed, and most co-ops and condos end up with electric because the facade belongs to the building.
In this guide
- Gas vs. electric at a glance
- How much heat does each one produce?
- Which costs less to run?
- What installation, venting and permits are required?
- Which flame looks more real?
- Which is safer around kids and a TV?
- What about maintenance, lifespan and resale?
- Which wins in four typical projects?
- Our recommended models
- Which should you choose?
- Frequently asked questions
Gas vs. electric at a glance
| Factor | Direct vent gas | Electric |
|---|---|---|
| Heat output | 16,000 to 40,000+ BTU. Heats a whole room, often more. | About 5,000 BTU on 120V, about 8,500 on 240V. Supplemental heat for one room. |
| Fuel and running cost | Natural gas (propane outside NYC). Cheaper per BTU of heat delivered. | Electricity. Modest per hour because the draw is small; expensive per BTU. |
| Installation | Gas line, vent through an exterior wall or roof, framed chase, licensed plumber, permit, inspection. | Framed opening or a wall bracket, one dedicated circuit, an electrician for hardwired units. |
| Flame | Real combustion. Yellow, moving, radiant. | LED, LCD or water vapor illusion. Premium units are convincing, cheap ones are not. |
| Safety | Glass front gets very hot; barrier screen required. Sealed combustion, CO detector still recommended. | Glass stays cool. No combustion, no CO. |
| Maintenance | Annual service: glass cleaning, burner, pilot or ignition, vent check. | Dust it. Replace a remote battery. Refill water on vapor units. |
| Resale | Listed as a fireplace. Buyers and appraisers count it. | Listed as a feature wall. Nice, but not a fireplace in the appraiser's eyes. |
| Apartment or house | Houses, and apartments with an exterior wall and a cooperative board. | Any apartment, any rental, any interior wall. |
How much heat does each one produce?
This is the gap people underestimate. A standard electric fireplace on a 120V circuit is limited to about 1,500 watts, which converts to roughly 5,000 BTU per hour. The Dimplex IgniteXL 60 is rated at 1,500 watts and 5,118 BTU on 120V. The Amantii Panorama Slim 60 is in the same range. Hardwire an IgniteXL to 240V and it climbs to 2,500 watts and about 8,530 BTU, which is the ceiling for residential electric.
Now the gas side. The entry level Napoleon Ascent 36 is rated up to 18,000 BTU. The Montigo DelRay 36 linear is 16,000 BTU at 71 percent efficiency, and the 60 inch version of the same line is 28,000. The Napoleon Elevation X 36 goes up to 37,000 BTU with a blower and ducted heat management that can push warm air into another room. In plain terms, a mid range gas fireplace puts out four to seven times the heat of the best electric unit, and it does it with radiant heat you feel on your skin from across the room rather than warm air from a fan.
What that means in practice: a direct vent gas fireplace can be the main heat source for an open living room on Long Island through most of the winter, and it works during a power outage on millivolt or battery backup ignition. An electric unit takes the edge off a bedroom or an office and is never going to carry a drafty room in January.
Which costs less to run?
We are not going to quote you a dollar figure, because Con Edison, National Grid and PSEG rates move every season and your bill depends on your tariff. The math is simple enough to run yourself.
Electric. A 1,500 watt heater on high uses 1.5 kilowatt-hours for every hour it runs. Multiply 1.5 by the per kWh rate on your bill and that is the hourly cost at full heat. With the thermostat set, the heater cycles, so real use is less. Flame only, with the heater off, draws very little because the flame is LEDs. For an hour or two in the evening, the number is modest. The catch is that New York electricity is among the more expensive in the country per unit of energy, so if you tried to heat a whole house this way, you would notice.
Gas. A gas fireplace is rated in BTU input per hour. One therm of natural gas is 100,000 BTU, so an 18,000 BTU fireplace on high burns about 0.18 therms an hour and a 37,000 BTU unit burns about 0.37. Multiply by the per therm rate on your gas bill. Per BTU of heat delivered, gas is the cheaper fuel in our region, which is why a gas fireplace can realistically offset your furnace or boiler in the room you actually sit in, a strategy called zone heating.
The practical takeaway: if you want ambiance for an hour a night, electric is cheap to run and the heat is a bonus. If you want to heat a room every evening all winter, gas delivers far more heat per dollar.
What installation, venting and permits are required?
This is where the two paths really separate, and where most of the cost difference lives.
A direct vent gas fireplace needs three things. A gas line, extended from your meter by a licensed master plumber, which in New York City means a Department of Buildings filing and an inspection. A vent, which is a coaxial pipe that pulls combustion air from outside and pushes exhaust back out, terminating on an exterior wall or through the roof with specific clearances to windows, doors and property lines. And a framed chase sized to the unit, which for a 36 inch box like the Ascent is roughly 35 1/2 inches wide by 35 inches tall by 16 inches deep, and for a bigger unit like the Elevation X 36 is closer to 40 by 44 by 22 inches. Then the finish work: stone, tile, drywall, mantel. Our crews do all of it, and we coordinate the plumber and the inspection. It is a construction project. Plan on weeks, not days.
An electric fireplace needs an opening in a wall and a circuit. Wall mounted units like the SimpliFire Allusion Platinum 50 hang on a bracket and plug into an outlet. Recessed linears like the Modern Flames Landscape Pro Slim 68 get framed into a 2x6 wall and hardwired. The electrician runs one dedicated 20 amp circuit, or a 240V line if you want the bigger heater. No permit for the fireplace itself in most cases, though electrical work has its own rules and your building may require a filing. One to two days of work on an existing wall.
From our install team
Before you fall in love with a gas unit, stand at the wall and figure out where the vent goes. Direct vent can run horizontally out the back or up and out through the roof, but every foot of pipe and every elbow counts against the manufacturer's limits, and the termination cap cannot sit next to an operable window or under a deck. In a Queens two-family, the vent often has to clear the neighbor's lot line. We check this on the first visit, because it decides the project.
Three New York City rules shape the decision. Vent-free gas fireplaces, which need no chimney or vent, are legal in much of the country and we sell them for homes outside the city, but they cannot be installed in New York City under the NYC Fuel Gas Code. Propane is tightly restricted by the FDNY inside the five boroughs, so a city gas fireplace means natural gas. And new wood-burning fireplaces have been off the table since Local Law 38 of 2015. So in NYC the real choice is direct vent gas or electric, full stop. In Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and New Jersey, vent-free and propane come back into play, which opens up rooms that have no vent path.
Which flame looks more real?
A gas flame is a flame. It is yellow, it moves because it is burning, and it throws radiant heat and a flicker of real light across the ceiling. Modern burners from Napoleon, Majestic, Montigo and SÓLAS sit under ceramic fiber logs or glass media and look like a wood fire from the sofa. Nobody has to be told it is gas.
Electric is an illusion, and the quality of the illusion is the whole product. The mainstream approach is LEDs projected onto a reflective or frosted panel behind the media bed, which is what you get in the Dimplex IgniteXL, the Amantii Panorama and the Modern Flames Landscape Pro. The premium versions of this are bright enough to hold up in daylight and random enough that you do not catch the loop. At the top of the market, water vapor fireplaces like the Dimplex Opti-Myst Pro 1500 turn tap water into a cool mist with ultrasonic transducers, light it from below, and produce a three dimensional flame and smoke that moves when someone walks past. It is the only electric flame that reads as real from the side.
Our honest ranking for realism: gas first, water vapor second, premium LED third, then a long drop to the big box units. If realism is the thing that matters most and you cannot do gas, budget for Opti-Myst.
Which is safer around kids and a TV?
The glass on a direct vent gas fireplace gets hot. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has cited surface temperatures on glass fronts in the range of 500 to 1,000°F, and the industry standard for vented gas fireplaces now requires a protective barrier screen in front of the glass. Every gas unit we sell ships with one. If you have toddlers or a dog that likes to lean on things, keep the barrier on and consider a hearth gate for the first few years.
Electric glass stays cool enough to touch while the flame runs. The heater outlet at the bottom front gets warm, the way a space heater grille does, but there is no combustion, no carbon monoxide and no gas line. This is the reason electric is the default for a child's playroom, a bathroom, or a wall where the TV sits a few inches above the fireplace. Gas units can take a TV above them too, but only with the manufacturer's heat management kit and the clearances in the manual. Montigo publishes wall surface temperatures above a 36 inch DelRay of 180°F at 4 inches without a vented chase, dropping to around 105°F with one. Those numbers tell you why the kit is not optional.
What about maintenance, lifespan and resale?
A gas fireplace wants a service visit about once a year: pull the glass and clean it, vacuum the firebox, check the burner, the ignition and the vent, and confirm the barrier is in place. Skip it for a few years and you get a white haze on the glass, a lazy flame and a pilot that will not light on the first cold night. Our service department does this all winter. Manufacturers generally put the working life of a quality direct vent unit at 20 years or more with that upkeep.
An electric fireplace has almost nothing to maintain. Dust the glass, keep the heater intake clear, change the remote batteries. Water vapor units need the reservoir refilled or a plumbed water line, and the transducer discs are a wear part you will eventually replace. The electronics are the lifespan: figure 10 to 20 years depending on the brand, which is one more reason to buy a brand that stocks parts.
On resale, a gas fireplace is a fireplace. Listings call it out, appraisers count it, and buyers in Long Island and Westchester expect one in a living room. An electric unit built into a beautiful wall adds to the room, and in a Manhattan condo it may be the only fireplace the building allows, but it is valued as a finish, not as a mechanical system.
Not sure what fits your space? Tell us the building type, the wall you have in mind and whether gas is in the house, and we will tell you in one visit whether direct vent is feasible or electric is the smarter path. Book a free design consultation and we will help you narrow it down.
Which wins in four typical projects?
These are composites of the jobs we quote every week. The details change, the logic does not.
| Scenario | What decides it | Our call |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan condo, interior living room wall | No exterior wall to vent through, facade belongs to the building, board must approve any penetration, no new wood or vent-free allowed. | Electric. A recessed linear or an Opti-Myst in a furred out wall on a dedicated circuit. The alteration agreement is one page. |
| Queens two-family, owner's floor, exterior wall | Gas is in the house. The question is whether the vent cap clears the lot line, windows and the neighbor's wall. | Gas if the vent works, electric if it does not. A 36 inch direct vent like the Ascent is the sweet spot. We site the termination before we quote. |
| Long Island colonial, family room | Big room, long winter, gas or propane available, plenty of exterior wall, resale matters. | Gas. A 36 to 42 inch direct vent with a blower, or a linear with heat management if a TV goes above. This is the one that heats the room and shows up in the listing. |
| Westchester renovation, bedroom suite or office | Smaller room, mostly for atmosphere, walls already open, budget split with the rest of the renovation. | Either, leaning electric. A 50 to 60 inch linear on 240V gives real supplemental heat with no plumber and no vent. Go gas if it is the main living space. |
From our install team
Houses with an old masonry fireplace are their own case. If the chimney is sound, a direct vent gas insert like the Majestic Trilliant 30 uses the existing flue for its liner and turns a drafty open hearth into an efficient heater. If the chimney is shot or the building will not allow gas, an electric firebox insert slides into the same opening in an afternoon.
Our recommended models
Three gas and three electric that cover the common cases. All of them are units we stock, install and service.
Gas
Electric
Two more worth a look. The Napoleon Altitude X 36 is the step between the Ascent and the Elevation X, with a clean face and interchangeable interior panels. On the electric side, the Amantii Panorama Slim 60 is rated for covered outdoor use, which solves the rooftop and balcony question in a way no gas unit in the city can.
Gas fireplacesDirect ventGas insertsElectric fireplacesLinear electricBuilt-in electricWater vapor
Which should you choose?
Choose gas if:
- You own a house with gas service and an exterior wall or roof to vent through.
- You want the fireplace to heat the room, not just decorate it: 16,000 to 40,000 BTU of radiant heat that works in a power outage.
- Realism matters and you do not want to explain the flame to guests.
- Resale matters. A gas fireplace is listed and appraised as a fireplace.
- You can live with a construction project: plumber, permit, vent, framing and finish work.
Choose electric if:
- You are in a co-op, condo or rental, or the wall you want is interior with no vent path.
- The room is a bedroom, office or playroom where supplemental heat and cool glass are the point.
- A TV is going directly above and you would rather skip the heat management kit.
- You want it done in a day or two on an existing wall with one circuit.
- The budget is split with the rest of a renovation, and the Opti-Myst or a premium LED linear gives you the look.
For a house in Queens, Long Island, Westchester or New Jersey with gas in the building and a wall that vents, we recommend direct vent gas: the Napoleon Ascent 36 for most rooms, the Elevation X 36 when you want serious heat or a TV above. For a Manhattan condo or any interior wall, go electric and spend on the flame: the Dimplex IgniteXL 60 for a clean feature wall, the Opti-Myst Pro 1500 if realism is what you care about. One site visit settles which of the two your building allows.
Frequently asked questions
Is a gas fireplace or an electric fireplace cheaper to run?
Per hour of use, electric is modest because a 1,500 watt heater draws 1.5 kilowatt-hours. Per BTU of heat delivered, gas is cheaper in our region. Electric wins for an hour of ambiance; gas wins for heating a room all evening.
Does an electric fireplace give off real heat?
Yes, from a built-in fan heater, roughly 5,000 BTU on a 120V unit and about 8,500 BTU on a 240V unit. That warms one room. A direct vent gas fireplace delivers 16,000 to 40,000 BTU.
Can I install a gas fireplace in a NYC apartment?
Sometimes. You need natural gas service, an exterior wall or roof for the direct vent termination, a licensed master plumber and a Department of Buildings filing, and your co-op or condo board has to approve the facade penetration. Vent-free gas is not permitted in New York City. Most apartments end up with electric for these reasons.
Which looks more realistic, gas or electric?
Gas, because it is a real flame. Among electric units, water vapor fireplaces like the Dimplex Opti-Myst are the most convincing, followed by premium LED linears from Dimplex, Modern Flames, Amantii and Napoleon.
Is the glass on a gas fireplace dangerous?
It gets hot enough to cause a serious burn, which is why the industry standard requires a barrier screen on glass front gas fireplaces. Keep the screen in place. Electric fireplace glass stays cool to the touch.
Does a gas fireplace add more resale value than electric?
Generally yes. A gas fireplace is listed and appraised as a fireplace. An electric unit is valued as part of a finished feature wall. In a building that does not allow gas, a well built electric wall is still a selling point.
Can I put a TV above a gas fireplace?
Only with the manufacturer's heat management kit and the clearances in the installation manual, because wall temperatures above a gas unit can reach well over 150°F without it. Electric units are the easier choice for a TV wall because the glass is cool and the heat vents out the front.
Talk to a specialist
One site visit settles gas vs. electric
We have been designing, selling, installing and servicing fire features and outdoor kitchens for over 30 years across New York City, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey and South Florida. We will check the gas, the vent path and the building rules, then show you both options burning in our Maspeth showroom.
Book a free consultationCall 718-326-4328Showroom: 58-30 Maspeth Ave, Maspeth, Queens.
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Written by the NYC Fireplaces & Outdoor Kitchens team. Last reviewed October 2026. We sell, install and service the products discussed here.
Sources:Napoleon Ascent 36, Napoleon Elevation X 36, Montigo DelRay brochure, Dimplex IgniteXL spec sheet, Amantii Panorama spec sheet, CPSC on glass front gas fireplaces, NYC DOB code update, Local Law 38 of 2015. Specifications change; always confirm with the manufacturer's current installation manual.