For heating a large bedroom or living room.

Was looking at the Dyson units but they're pricey.

Safety should be your biggest concern when buying one of these. They cause lots of fires when used improperly.

Skins will be here shortly to tell you why you should be very careful using an electric space heater on the typical household circuitry.

From looking for them years ago, important rules were to never use an extension cord or power strip and make sure the area around the heater was clear of flammable materials. Some recommended never leaving them unattended and only using them on the low setting.

Power ratings were mostly the same with 750W and 1500W. Some have a switch to turn them off if they are tipped over. Some have thermostats that switch the heater element on and off depending on room temperature.

Beyond that stuff, price seems to be mostly about features and style.

What about a window heat pump? Probably $6-$700 but offers advantages such as lower operating cost plus they heat and cool. Plus they're still portable so in Winter place it where it's cold and in Summer move it to the hot area.
https://airconditionerlab.com/window-heat-pumps/

We just picked up one of the radiator heaters that are filled with oil. It seems to work OK for the wife in her makeshift office area in the kitchen.

Although there is a risk with anything that is plugged in to AC, I don't think these radiator units are something to be overly concerned about when it comes to starting a fire. Am I missing something there?

quote:

Originally posted by steve495:
We just picked up one of the radiator heaters that are filled with oil. It seems to work OK for the wife in her makeshift office area in the kitchen.

Although there is a risk with anything that is plugged in to AC, I don't think these radiator units are something to be overly concerned about when it comes to starting a fire. Am I missing something there?

Besides the obvious tip-over fire, house fires caused by overloaded circuits. Chinese POS plugged in for hours/days/weeks at a time drawing high amps and unattended. Much different than plugging in a 10 amp vacuum cleaner and using for a few minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by steve495:
We just picked up one of the radiator heaters that are filled with oil. It seems to work OK for the wife in her makeshift office area in the kitchen.

I use one of those in the winter, just heating the bedroom a little. I like it. It's trouble-free, doesn't stink, and is good heat.

On a different note, I just bought one of these DeLonghi ceramic heaters for my work office. I've only run it for an hour, in a [roughly] 200 square foot office, and it does a really nice job. I wanted to get another of the oil-radiator types, but this unit can sit on top of the tool box and take up a lot less space.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Skins will be here shortly to tell you why you should be very careful using an electric space heater on the typical household circuitry.

Don't need to, you just did.

I highly recommend against it unless you are using it on a dedicated 20A circuit.

They use 80% of the capacity of you circuit 12A/1500W, standard bedroom circuitry is 15A/1800W. So that leaves you room for (4) 60 watt light bulbs on the entire circuit before you hit 100%.

This is assuming that all the electrical equipment in your home is in new condition, and that the installer did the installation perfectly. If not you may be exceeding the ability of your circuitry to handle the load, but not the circuit breakers trip rating.

Granted I used to do this for a living so I saw a lot of fires or near misses caused by space heaters, but I really wish you wouldn't do it. Contact your HVAC company and/or insulator and fix the problem with the cold bedroom instead of putting an unsafe bandaid on it. If you insist on running electric heat, then have an electrician install a dedicated 20A circuit for it or a actual baseboard heater.

Apologies to Edmond for drifting his thread, but while Skins is here I'd like to ask about these Eheat devices.

Have you dealt with them? Are they all they're cracked up to be? I've thought about replacing a baseboard heater in the basement room with one of those, but I feel like I don't know enough.

The heater we use in the bathroom arc’d this morning, throwing a huge blue glow and roaring noise, sounded like someone was stickwelding, until I pulled the plug from the wall. We have had this one for a few years and I blew the dust out of it last year with compressed air, so I know it wasn’t dust...anyone who has ever smelled an electrical fire knows what I’m talking about.

I took it out side and threw it away. Not even going to autopsy it.

We only use it to make the bathroom warmer in the morning until 5e house heat catches up.

Mrs Mike ordered a new on on Amazon at lunch.

Be aware. Never know when things can go wrong.

We have a two year old home, there was only one thing turned on on that circuit.

Skins is right.

Another vote for oil filled radiator heater. They don't have a fan, so it takes a bit for the space to reach temp but they're quiet and infinitely adjustable from lowest to highest setting for perfect warmth in most home sized rooms. Picked up a couple at Walmart several years ago for about $40 each. The electric ones with fans I have, now live in storage.

VT, not familiar with that particular brand, but for the similar ones I have installed in the past as long as you are at less than 80% of the circuit it shouldn't matter from an electrical safety standpoint. Since I haven't used that brand or installed more than a dozen panel style ones I can't really speak to the product safety or the category safety.

I never really saw the appeal of these units, I know people think they look better than baseboard, but I don't really think they look much better.

I contacted the company via chat. All units they offer are the same, 500w. Doesn't matter the voltage or if it is hardwired or plug in.

I am pasting their recommendation below. With your existing set up you could use it as hardwired 120/240 or add an outlet and use the plug in model. The only advantage to using it as a 220v hardwired unit would be you could add more units than you would be able to if you used one of the two 120v offerings.

I see nothing wrong with this type of product other than the fact the manufacture has a section on their website for recalls.

The cool thing about the product is that it only uses 500w so it would be a lot easier to use on an existing circuit than a traditional space heater because of the lower wattage (assuming that circuit isn't already overloaded). 500w is about the power consumption of a medium sized to large sized chandelier using conventional light bulbs.

Here's what they said about sizing/number of units.

quote:

Our 500 watt envi heater has been specifically designed to heat an average room measuring 130 - 150 square feet in floor area, to between 68 and 72 degrees, even in the coldest parts of the country. In rooms that have one or more of the following conditions: inferior insulation, many windows, staircases leading upwards, adjoining rooms that cannot be closed off (open plan). outside entrances or no other heat source - this ratio may have to be lowered slightly to about 100 square feet. For rooms with above average insulation or warmer climates this ratio might be able to be increased. You can add as many heaters as you like to heat any size room, home or office. For rooms with no insulation or for rooms such as sunrooms with entire walls made of glass we recommend a ratio of one 475/500 watt heater per 60-80 square feet of floor area.
If your space is larger than 150 square feet, we recommend adding 1 Envi heaters for every additional 150 square feet. Multiple heaters within one large space should be mounted on opposing walls or strategically and evenly spaced within the area if possible.

Thank you, Jesse!

The draw for me is the opening up of the wall space. With a baseboard heater spanning 4' or so, I'm limited with respect to furniture against the wall (bookcases, for instance). That panel isn't nearly as wide, essentially opening up wall space, which would be good in this little 10x15 room. Based on the info you quoted, this 500W unit ought to be plenty for this room.

Thank you again.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
The heater we use in the bathroom arc’d this morning, throwing a huge blue glow and roaring noise, sounded like someone was stickwelding, until I pulled the plug from the wall. We have had this one for a few years and I blew the dust out of it last year with compressed air, so I know it wasn’t dust...anyone who has ever smelled an electrical fire knows what I’m talking about.

I took it out side and threw it away. Not even going to autopsy it.

We only use it to make the bathroom warmer in the morning until 5e house heat catches up.

Mrs Mike ordered a new on on Amazon at lunch.

Be aware. Never know when things can go wrong.

We have a two year old home, there was only one thing turned on on that circuit.

Skins is right.

I am only addressing the less obvious over loading of the circuity that most people don't consider with space heater use. You are addressing another one of the the possible hazards - product failure. The last one is the most obvious one which is fire from direct contact or tipping which most manufactures have eliminated with kill switches from them either not being up right or from a thermal cutoff.

There are in fact three dangers:

- Circuit overload
- Product defects/failure
- Fire from contact/proximity with combustible materials.

I have a small oil filled unit that works well and have been using for the last three years. It takes a little time to warm but it works well.

I live in an old house so the std. house circuits are no go. I put in dedicated 20a circuit so my wife can have supplemental electric during the morning while our steam boiler comes online (takes a long time). In one room it was a baseboard unit and in another one of the small ( 500/1000/1500w) oil fired radiator like units. I think the latter actually works better and has the advantage that in the summer we can put it somewhere else.

I have a ceramic heater about the size of a toaster. Works great! It was a gift so don't know where it came from Job Lot or Xmas tree shop. WallyWorld may be another source. I use it in an unheated room in a cabin. Don't have access to check wattage.

Another vote here for the oil filled radiator type. I have one that I use in the bedroom to take the edge off (Whoever put in the HVAC should be shot, they didn't put any returns on the 2nd floor so the heat struggles to heat up the bedroom). Mine has a low/med/high. Low I think is 600, med is 900 and high is the full 1500w. I never use high unless I'm absolutely freezing and even then it's only for a minute or two to give it a head start. I'll usually use medium and then once it gets up to temp I'll drop it to low and set the thermostat til the relay clicks. They hold temp very well and are very efficient. I also like them because there is none of the burning hair smell that some space heaters have and the only noise it makes is when it clicks on/off every so often as the temperature fluctuates.