A question that is frequently asked when the long days of summer draw in and the air turns cooler. Is it better to turn your heating up or should you just buy a mini heater for warmth. A secondary question is that if as space heater is the answer, then which is the best one to get.
Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer to this question. In order to be able to answer comprehensively we would need to know a great deal more about the home that needs heating. A lot depends on a number of factors:
- How many rooms do you need to heat?
- What is the square footage?
- What is your current go to heating system?
- How well insulated is your home?
- And so on...
Obviously, the first step is to make sure that you are not losing any heat. This means you need to insulate where you can, to seal off doors and windows and install energy efficient doors. There is plenty of information about the steps you could take which we will not cover here. If you think there is progress to be made in this area then check out the Department of Energy site which provides a lot of good advice.
Think About Heating Zones
The next step is to think about how you use your home. Many people who spend a lot of time at home actually find they only use two or three rooms at most during the day. If it were possible to heat just these rooms then you could well save a considerable sum on your heating bill.
Now, before explaining why we need to point out that generally speaking electric space heaters will not be more energy efficient than a typical natural gas furnace. Gas furnaces are actually designed to be efficient at producing heat. However, they are also designed to heat the whole house and not just a portion of it.
This is where zone heating comes in. Space heaters allow you to cheaply zone heat your home. If you can arrange your home living so that the rooms you use are close or adjoining, then you can use a mini heater to heat just those rooms and turn the thermostat right down for other rooms in the house.
The idea behind this is that despite electricity being more expensive than natural gas, and despite your gas furnace being more energy efficient you can still lower your overall heating costs by sensible zone heating.
Which space heater to go for?
Different space heaters have different characteristics. Some are safer for use indoors than others are. So, if you have decided to go down the zone heating route and use a space heater to provide your heat you will probably want to know which one is best.
These days some of the most efficient heaters are infrared heaters. And the best infrared heaters are very efficient. To understand it helps to think of ovens as a parallel to space heaters. The traditional space heater is similar to a traditional oven – a convection heater. Some of the more modern space heaters are infrared heaters and have beginning to dominate the space heater market. They are equivalent to the microwave oven. These mini portable heaters operate by emitting infrared wave, similar but not quite a high frequency as microwaves. The infrared waves warm anything in their path. The sensation is similar to that felt when sitting in sunlight. You just feel warm.
Infrared heaters have a couple of advantages, in our opinion, over convection heaters.
- When in use they are cool to the touch. This makes them ideal for busy households. Especially if there are children or pets around.
- They provide instant heat. Convection heaters, which warm the air in a room rather than the objects in a room, sometimes take a good 20-30 minutes to warm a cold room up. If you are impatient, this may be too long a time to wait.
We provide a number of articles examining the best space heaters, including one article looking specifically at the most efficient heaters. Why not check out those articles in order to get to know the space heater market more thoroughly.
The post Should You Buy a Space Heater or Just Turn Up the Heating? appeared first on Space Heater Pro.
