All winter long, I have been seeing full page ads for Amish fireplaces. It looks like a fireplace but it is on wheels and plugs into any electrical outlet. It even has what looks like a flame.

The claim is that these fireplaces will reduce your heating bill through Amish technology. Well, first of all, you can’t really use Amish and technology in the same sentence. Second, the fireplace needs electricity which I didn’t think that Amish people had.

In actuallity, the fireplaces are nothing more than a fancy electric space heaters which are made in China. The Amish merely add a fancy wood trim to the heaters and through a massive ad campaign, market it as an energy saving device.

Now, granted, it may save energy as it allows you to turn down the heat for your whole house and only use the fireplace to heat the area that you are occupying. So, in that sense, it does work, but, so would any other electric space heater at a tenth of the cost of the Amish fireplace.

Makes you want to check that patchwork quilt just to make sure it wasn’t made in Thailand.