Portable Electric heaters
All you need to know
How to Choose One How They Work Best buys & ReviewsChoosing, buying & using Electric Heaters
All Electric heaters use electricity to warm up an element (a resistive wire) which transfers heat by warming air directly or by radiating it as infra-red radiation (heat radiation).
» Read More of this intro' here
Electric heaters are the most efficient of all space heaters because they convert nearly 100% of the energy they use to heat (compared with 80% or less for fuel burning space heaters).
With the exception of oil filled radiators heating is instantaneous and they cool very quickly, so when turned off they are safe to leave unattended.
All electric heaters with the same Kilowatt (kW) rating will use the same amount of heat when switched on.
A 2 kW fan heater will use the same amount of energy as a 2 kW oil filled radiator or a 2 kW radiant heater.
Buying a more expensive electric heater with the same kW rating will not save money on your fuel bill, what will is the way you use it.
Choosing an electric heater depends on your requirements, a fan heater will blow hot air into the room heating it up quickly, an oil filled radiator will use a convection current slowly warming up the room and keeping it warm.
We've taken a look at each type, how they work at delivering heat and where best to use them.
If you want a more detailed explanation of how an electric heater works then have a look at the bottom of this page.
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This video gives a brief introduction to the different types of electric heater, each is explained in more detail below.
Fan and Ceramic Heaters
Fan heaters use a fan to draw air across heated elements and then blow the warmed air into the room.
Because they force warm air to circulate very quickly as soon they are turned off, the room will cool almost immediately.
» Read More here about Fan Heaters
This is because unlike a convection heater, which heats up the room slowly by slowly circulating warmed air, transferring heat into the objects in the room, a fan heater quickly warms up the air, and air by itself, doesn't have much ability to store heat.
A fan heater is ideal if you need to warm up quickly but as the room cools quickly the fan heaters thermostat will keep switching on and off much more than a convection heater or oil filled radiator.
There are thousands of different styles of fan heaters, from the standard flat basic flat types, to oscillating tower heaters and models built to resemble wood burning stoves.
Most fan heaters now use ceramic elements instead of heated coiled wire elements, we recommend buying a ceramic fan heater as they don't glow red-hot and are safer than the wire wound type
Fan heaters are usually portable, but fixed wall models are available. For bathrooms wall mounted ones are the preferred choice.
Suitable ones will come with an IP (waterproof) rating and be marked 'suitable for bathroom use'.
Only use an electric heater Ip rated as waterproof in a bathroom!
Fan heaters suck air though them andblow dust around the room, some of the dust will build up inside settling on the fan & slowing it down (most ceramic fan heaters have micro filters to prevent this).
For a quality heater it's worth paying an electrician every 3 years to open it up and clean the dust out, it will take him about 10 minutes and the heater will run like new again, with the cheaper ones replace them every 3 - 5 years.
Prices vary from the cheap sub £10 basic ones up to £700 + for top of the range models designed to resemble wood burning stoves with real flame effects and sophisticated controls.
Warning :- A fan heaters element gets very hot very quickly, if the fan stops working the heater WILL catch fire, never switch on a fan heater if the fan stops working.
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Convection & Micathermic space heaters
Convection space heaters warm the air by heating up an element which the air flows over.
As the air is warmed it rises drawing fresh cold air up over the element which in turn warms up drawing up more air.
» Read More about convection heaters
This is called the convection cycle, because of this convection cycle this type of electric heater will gradually heat up the air in a whole room and keep the temperature constant.
However they are not effective in draughty rooms as the warm air will escape and cold air will be drawn in from outside.
Micathermic heaters are new generation heating appliances, they use mica heating plates instead of traditional wire elements
These radiate heat as well as use a convection current so heat objects in front of them as well as the air in the room. They are one of the many examples of electric heater that uses multiple ways to deliver heat.
Open wire heaters with vents above the heating elements are the most common type of convection heater.
If you leave one in the same place long enough, you will see a dark patch form on the ceiling above it, this is the smoke residue from dust drawn into the elements and burnt.
Because wire-element convection heaters have the heating elements exposed directly to the air, and these glow red-hot, they heat up quite quickly and can pose a fire or burn risk if anything comes in contact with the elements.
They must not be left unattended around vulnerable people and they are not recommended for bathroom use.
Both open element and micathermic convection heaters should have thermostats which are necessary to keep the room temperature constant and to prevent overheating.
We advise never buying one without a thermostat as if the element is continuously on there is a high risk of overheating.
Electric convector heaters can be just a metal box open at the top and bottom with wire heating elements strung across the inside (open element, a basic model like that can cost under £10.
Or they can be sturdy framed micathermic multi element ducted chambers, with sophisticated programmers, thermostatic controllers and fan assistance, these top models can cost £200 or more.
Most of the better models use a combination of radiated heat and / or fan assistance to aid heat distribution.
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Radiant Heaters
Bar Heaters :-
Radiant bar heaters are the best choice if you are going to be using a room for a short period and will not be moving around.
» Read More here about Radiant Heaters
They are ideal if your watching TV , working at a bench or desk, or eating a meal.
This is because they work by directly heating whats in front of them (you & your surroundings) instead of the whole room (think of them working like a torch, only heating what they shine on).
If you want to heat up the whole room then radiant bar heaters are not a good choice as they can take a very long time to heat up a space, whatever is in front of them will get hot, yet things a few feet away will still be cold.
Halogen Radiant heaters have now taken over from the old bar type, the problem with cheap halogen heaters is the quartz tubes are filled with pressurized gas and are fragile so break easily.
Touching or getting dirt on the tubes creates a hot spot which causes the element to burn out. Due to these faults cheap halogen heaters do not last very long.
Other more robust alternatives are ruby sleeved tubes, Infra red tubes, and ceramic elements which are all much more expensive.
A good, high-powered radiant bar heater will have tungsten halogen lamps, with ruby-red quartz outer sleeves. These are durable, long-lasting and because of the high price are usually reserved for commercial use.
Typically wall or ceiling mounted a 1.5 Kilowatt heater mounted on a wall at the recommended 2.5 meters high and angled down at 45 degrees will directly heat a floor area of 3.4 x 3.7 meters, that's 12.58 square meters or 999 square feet, that's the size of an average room!
Because the lamps have a temperature approaching 2200 ºC, walking underneath them can be uncomfortably hot. Radiant heaters like these cost over £200.
Any heater of this type with a greater rating than 1.5 Kilowatts would be unsuitable for domestic use, unless you live in a property with a very high ceiling.
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Infrared Heating Panels
These panel heaters work by the heater elements transferring their heat to a large flat surface which radiates heat into the room warming any objects or people in front of it, » Read More about Panel Heaters Thespanels do not get as hot as oil filled radiators so present less of a burn hazard. They are thermostatically controlled and once the room is up to heat they only switch on power for around 20% of the time to maintain the room temperature. Infra red panels are ideal for nuseries, sickrooms and art studios as they dont give off any fumes or smells and do not consume any oxygen, they do not dry out the air or change the humidity of a room, are silent , and unlike convection and fan heaters do not create heavy air currents carrying dust around the room, as even when the air in room is fully heated only 32% of the of the heat is maintained by convection. These panels are the most versatile of all electric heaters as they can be placed in any room; bedrooms, children rooms, rooms with elderly or ill occupants and are splashproof. They can be freestanding or mounted on walls or ceilings. The range is astounding, with new technology such as engineered plastics with metallic filaments, carbon nano fibers, and carbon crystal panels allowing a degree of design flexibility not seen in other forms of heating. Some are designed to be painted to blend into a rooms decor, there are transparent or colored thermo-glass panels, some can be printed with any picture or scene you like, including family pictures and company logos, animated scenes such as flickering fires and even be formed into blinds and screens. » Read less
Oil Filled Radiators
Oil filled electric radiators, are sealed units with an internal heating element submerged in a liquid such as oil, water or other heat transfer liquid,
» Read More here about Oil Filled Radiators
the element heats the liquid which heats the case. Depending on the design of the radiator, the heat generated can be radiant or a combination of both radiant and convected heat.
Traditionally oil was used to fill this type of electric heater, some modern designs now use water or thermo gels, this is becoming more common as in case of leaks oil is messy and difficult to clean up. Recently liquid free designs have been produced, unlike wall mounted electric radiators which have a solid filling, these heat up an airspace within the casing.
Oil filled radiators are great keeping a single room warm when the central heating is turned off. They have no exposed elements, but they can get very hot if used at full heat, so are not suitable for bathrooms or for children or elderly peoples bed rooms unless fixed on a low setting, cool touch infra red panel heaters are best used in these locations.
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Electric Fires
Most free-standing and wall hung electric fires are easy to install and do not need an electrician or any special knowledge, the floor mounted types come as simple plug-in and stand up models which do not require any special installation,
» Read More here about Oil Filled Radiators
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As The Home Heating Shop is about portable space heaters these are the ones we review and recommend from our partners and trusted suppliers.
There are many types of electric fire available to suit all tastes, you can browse a selection of electric fires here.
If you are interested in fitted electric fires which are permanently installed in existing fireplaces or inserted in walls some of these, depending on the energy usage, may require a new circuit from the consumer unit (fusebox).
If youneed one of these visit The Home Fire Shop which advises on permanently fixed electric, as well as gas fires as well as wood burning stoves.
We recommend consulting a registered electrician if you are uncertain about buying a wall mounted or free-standing electric fire.
Use the The Registered Competent Person Electrical search facility type in your postcode and it will give you a list of registered electricians near you.
How Does an Electric Heater Work?
All Electric heaters work by getting an element (wire or other material) hot, then using that hot element to heat either the air (convection and fan heaters) fluid (oil filled radiators, water heaters, kettles) or the objects (radiant & infra-red heaters) in your room.
How do they use electricity to get the heating element hot?
The math behind how this works is complicated but we don't need to discuss that here because how it actually works is very simple.
Think of electric current as tiny particles (called electrons) made to flow through a wire, the wire is full of other tiny particles which the electrons bang into and have to squeeze pass, the obstruction by these other particles is called resistance./
This rubbing of the electrons against the obstacles (resistance) in the wire is called friction and creates heat, the more electrons forced through the wire the more resistance, the more friction so more heat, this is called resistive heating!
In any heating appliance (Kettles Toasters, and your Electric Heater) the heating elements are made of materials which have a high resistance and are robust enough to stand repeated heating and cooling without breaking down (usually a nickel based alloy called nichrome).
A high current passes through the element so the amount of friction is massive and gets the element very, very hot, so hot that the wire elements can glow red and (in the case of fan heaters) can melt if air isn't blown over them to cool them down.
Try the old winter trick of warming your hands up, put your hands with your palms pressing against each other now rub them back and forth quickly, after a few seconds they get warm, a few seconds more and they get uncomfortably hot so you have to stop.
That heat is caused by the pressure needed to move one piece of skin over another, friction! That's the same rubbing happening between electrons and other particles in the wire but millions of times faster.