What is the power consumption of the one you plan to get? I would run a new, 20A dedicated circuit. Depending on the fireplace, it might have to be 240 Volt.

If there is power there designed for a gas fireplace, it won't have enough capacity for an electric one.

It says 1500 watt heater when on full heat (2 heat settings). Don't know the wattage of also running the lights and whatnot. Would running wires in a finished basement be a pain?

I also learned that all our basement ceiling lights run on this circuit, and that we have a breaker (15 amp) titled "basement lights" that doesn't seem to turn off anything in the basement. So the circuit that already runs the TV and whatnot is likely at fairly high capacity, though we do have all LED bulbs.

Maybe we'll just need to pull the trigger on a gas fireplace ;)

I wouldnt run it on a 15a circuit even if it was dedicated.

the fire place draws 1500/120 = 12.5a x125% = 15.6a. you need a 20a circuit for this.

What would running new wire for a 20a circuit entail? Here's a rough sketch of my basement Floorplan, including the location of the breaker box and the outlet in question. The full span of the basement is a little under 40', much of the basement is finished, and the trusses run perpendicular to the total width/span of the basement. Would we have to remove ceiling/drywall to run a new wire?

Running a new line is the same for 15or 20A, except that 20A needs to be 12Ga while 15 can be 14Ga. If you don't want to mess with the walls or ceiling to pull new wire, you could use surface mount conduit like this: https://www.grainger.com/product/3YY43?ef_id=Cj0KCQjwqp-LBhDQARIsAO0a6aKANq2yuiwPhctlSsAlmsLxdWeHWt7iE4nr5g4zjyxpGjqLY_dYJ68aAmwAEALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!496359971029!!!g!470952775171!&gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:4P7A1P:20501231&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqp-LBhDQARIsAO0a6aKANq2yuiwPhctlSsAlmsLxdWeHWt7iE4nr5g4zjyxpGjqLY_dYJ68aAmwAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Similar products from other sources exist.

Thanks for the info and help. I know 15a and 20a circuits need different wires, which is unfortunate. I'd rather not cut open my walls or ceilings to run a new wire. A surface mount conduit could work, but I just don't know how it would look going through a finished basement.

Or, just find a electric fireplace that has a smaller wattage/amp output.

Question:

The "mystery" outlet is unfortunately on the basement rec/family room circuit. What if we ran the electric fireplace on that circuit only on the 750 watt heat setting?

I would not recommend that someone else could tey running it higher.

again, that heater should be on a 20a circuit as its amperage calculations come to 15.6a.

Thanks. We'll keep looking at different options and try to find something with as low wattage as possible. If we could somehow find one that only ran at 750 watts, that would be great.

Do you have drop ceiling or a soffit running the lenght of the basement? if so, it would be easy tk send a wire down there. if not, cutting a channel in the drywall would be the only option.

This is what our basement ceiling looks like.

It runs in this circled area in the picture below. The lower area is a fairly wide space. How would pulling a wire through there work?

Appreciate the thoughts and help!

Can't really tell where on your diagram your photos are, but, first, understand that you're going to have to break into the drywall in several places and later repair that. Get into your breaker box by taking the front off. Do that and post a picture of it. If you're lucky, there will be breakouts in the top of the box. Find a place above the box in front of an available breakout and a point at the wall-ceiling corner directly above that place and break a hole in the wall and ceiling there.

I assume you're going to use Romex or equivalent. Run your wire toward the unfinished room. Once there, you're home free. Once you get around the stairs, can you go behind them and run the wire over to where the fireplace will be?

I would make all the access holes before you start.

Thank you both so much for all the advise and tips.

This is probably more of a project than what we were looking for at the moment. I think if we got into taking off drywall and whatnot, we'd rather have it be for a gas fireplace.

I will reference this post often if it's something we decide to go for.