What's the best option for converting a wood fireplace to electric?
Fletcher's honest answer: with natural gas in the ground along the corridor, electric has to argue against a very easy gas conversion — and for anyone who wants heat from a 1990s subdivision fireplace, gas usually wins. Where a Dimplex electric insert earns its place is the looks-first room, or the commercial space where venting is impractical. Either way, it's about 5,000 BTU of supplemental warmth.
The 1990s builder-box decision
Fletcher's subdivisions are full of 1990s builder-grade wood-burning fireplaces that were never anyone's pride — shallow boxes, tired dampers, more draft than heat. Converting one to electric is the least expensive path: the unit itself can be a few hundred dollars, there's no venting and no fuel line, and the flame-only mode keeps it in use on a July evening. Converting to gas costs more and delivers more — a sealed insert that heats at 70 percent efficiency or better and keeps burning through an outage with the right ignition.
Because Fletcher sits on the natural-gas mains, that second path is unusually easy here, and we'd be doing you a disservice not to say so. It's licensed gas work, permitted with Henderson County, inspected, pressure-tested.
Fletcher's commercial wrinkle
Fletcher is also the rare town where this question comes from businesses as often as homeowners — the airport-area corridor generates more commercial fireplace demand than the residential communities around it. Most of that work is gas, but electric has a real commercial niche: interior spaces where a vent run is impractical and the fireplace's job is atmosphere, not BTUs. The same honest spec applies at a reception desk as in a den. We're 20 minutes north — call (828) 545-0525 for a free assessment at your home or business.
Fireplace help in Fletcher
We install and service fireplaces throughout Fletcher and the rest of Henderson County — just 20 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.