What Heaters are Best for your Home? With the variety of heaters available on the market these days, anything from gas to electric to halogen heaters to diesel heaters, how do you know what is the best for your heating needs?  One thing that you can be sure of is that no matter what your need, nor how specific is it, there is a heater designed that will suit your exact purpose and budget.
Since time began, warmth has been one of man’s basic needs.  Heating was very primitive in centuries past.  The method for heating homes, until very recently, was through setting a large fire in a fireplace and cooking  and heating water with wood heaters or stoves.  Earlier than that, before the advent of the wood stove or wood heater, man depended solely on warm clothing and fires to keep himself warm.

Those times have passed. Today, you will find that heating your home has never been simpler.  No matter what type of heaters you are considering you will find a huge variety and a large price range amongst those available to purchase.  No longer does man need to depend solely on the heat generated from fires.  With the variety of heaters on the market, deciding on what heaters best suit your situation is now something that has been made increasingly more complex.

Whether you’re a new homeowner just starting out, or if you’ve just decided that it’s time to reconsider how to heat your home, or perhaps you’re concerned to cut back on heating costs; whatever your current needs you should be able to find just the right heater for your home and budget.

Some of the More Common Heaters We Will Look At

• Electric Heaters: Naturally, electric heaters seem more suited to certain parts of the home over others. If you’re looking for a simple heater, that is quick to turn on and heat up a room then you may find this heater is perfect for you.  With the rising costs of electricity, however, you may not want to have all heating for your home electric.
• The Wood Heater: Increasing more popular in some parts of the country, wood heaters are a good option for those who have plenty of access to this type of fuel.
• Propane Heaters: These can be a very cost effective way to heat larger expanses of space and are often used in camping lodges, such as Alaska fishing lodges, or lodges in other sometimes inaccessible locations.
• Natural Gas Heater: Also a very cheap way to heat your home. If you have access to some sort of natural gas supply you really can’t go wrong with this type of heater.
• Diesel Heaters: Useful when it comes to heating up large expanses of air, as these come with very high heating capabilities depending on the type of heater you use.
• Oil Filled Heater: Popular room oil filled radiator heaters that simply heat the room warmly without a lot of care needed.
• Garage Heater:  Unheated garages are little used during the cold winter months.  Heating your garage can convert into much more usable floor space for your household.

When purchasing heaters, it is also important to get the right heater for each area of the house. Some heaters are more suited to the kitchen or bathroom, while others best suit living rooms or bedrooms.   Even if you aren’t sure exactly what you’re looking for, spending some time looking around  here may help you decide on important topics such as whether you need to get gas wall heaters or electric wall heaters.  Do you know what is the best bathroom heater?  If not, keep reading.

Once you have an idea of what type of heaters you are considering purchasing, I’d suggest you go down to your local appliance store and actually check out the specs and the heaters themselves.  While it is possible to make a decision based on information only, I always say that the best final step before making a purchase of anything is to physically go over the item.  Talking to salespeople one-on-one is also worth doing, as they can answer any questions you have.  While I know you can very easily purchase heaters online these days, I am of the old school in a way.  When it comes to household appliances, or anything you invest in that adds to your home décor–whether it’s blinds, or heaters or other accessories–I recommend you link up with someone who can come to your aid if you need additional help or advice on installation or running your heaters.

Having said that, of course it is entirely up to you how you purchase your heaters!  If you are certain, from your research and from checking out other people’s heaters, that you know what you want to get and the installation is simple and easy, it certainly is a time saver to order heaters online and there are ample online stores selling all kinds of heaters.

If you are living in a milder climate, where winter temperatures don’t drop below zero, and you are interested for whatever reason in heating your new swimming pool so that it can be used during fall and perhaps even during winter, or if you have built an indoor pool that you would like to continue using, you will need to invest in a good pool heater.  Pool heaters are essential, even in warm climates, during the cooler winter months if you want to continue swimming.

While swimming during cooler months is not necessarily an enjoyable experience, if you swim in competitions or if you are using swimming as a primary means of exercise you may be willing to go ahead with swimming in heated swimming pools. I have not had such good experiences swimming in heated pools, though they do keep you warm when the air temperature around you drops, but I have to admit I did learn to swim during fall in a heated public swimming pool.

If you live in an area where you have ready access to gas, then the simplest way for you to heat your pool may well be by using a gas pool heater. Most gas pool heaters are installed outside, near your pool filter and they are specifically built so that exposure to the weather will not damage them in any way and they usually have a hood covering them. It is not essential to install the heater close to the filter, but it usually is simpler just to have all of your pool accessories grouped together in one place for easy access.  It does need to be placed on a level base, and it’s usually a good idea to build it up with bricks or concrete slabs or some other sturdy material.

Your pool pump will push the water through the heater and then the heater water will be pushed into the pool and circulated in this manner.  Pool heaters generate quite a bit of heat, so you do need to make sure they are not in close proximity to anything combustible and make sure that small children or pets can’t come in contact with them while they’re on either.

If you choose to install your gas pool heater indoors, in a garage or other enclosed space, you must make sure that the heater is vented.  Pool heaters should not be installed indoors without adequate vents installed at the same time. For this reason, many people simply choose the easier way of installing their pool heaters outdoors instead.

The additional cost of heating a pool during winter needs to be offset as much as possible, in order to both save energy and to save your money too! One of the best ways to both keep the heat in the pool and to enlist solar energy to heat up your pool more is by investing in solar swimming pool covers. These solar blankets are a great money saver, and you really shouldn’t consider heating your pool unless you use one of these as well.  A word of caution though, take the cover off completely when swimming in your pool, and place it beside the pool.

Of course, it also goes without saying that you should turn the heater down very low if you are not planning on using it for some time or if you are going away. If you only plan on using it during fall, for example, but not during winter, then you could also turn it all the way off.

Electric baseboard heaters differ from hot water baseboard heaters, in that they are usually use to heat up single rooms whereas the hot water baseboard heaters are normally part of the bigger central  heating system.

Cables inside the electric baseboard heater warm the air which is then pushed out from the baseboard unit.  Cold air is sucked in and the heating process continues in this cyclic manner.  They are not as efficient to use, for heating purposes, as central heating for example but they do a much better job at heating than the typical portable space heater does.

Temperature is normally controlled by the use of thermostats that are installed in each room. Once the air being sucked back into the electric baseboard heater reaches the temperature on the thermostat, the electric unit shuts down until the temperature in the room drops. This means that rooms that get a lot of use during winter can be warmed, while any rooms that are in disuse during winter can have their thermostat down so low that the heater rarely comes on. Being able to adjust the thermostat if needed makes the electric baseboard heater fairly practical to use.

Of course the main con in many people’s mind with the electric baseboard heater is that it takes up floor space and they can sometimes clash with a room’s overall décor.  Not much can be done about their taking up space, but it is possible to decorate or paint the unit so that it matches with your furnishings, if needed.  They also need to be installed in an area where there is good air flow so can’t be semi-hidden behind curtains or the couch, or near wall hangings as they may catch on fire. In order to stimulate good heat and air circulation it is often suggested that they be placed underneath a window so that the cold air falls from the window at the same time as warm air is rising from the heater.  If they are placed at baseboard level beneath a window there needs to be at least twelve inches minimum clearance from curtains for safety reasons.

Electric baseboard heaters are great to use in bedrooms, where their quiet operation doesn’t disturb sleep and the fact that they can be controlled using a thermostat makes it easy to heat up the room when needed and turn the temperature down when the room is empty.

A typical oil filled heater is also often referred to as a column heater, due to the columnar structure of the heating  columns, often referred to as fins.  These are a very common form of convection heating found in many homes and households, where they do a fairly good job of heating up a room.

They are referred to as oil filled heaters precisely because oil flows freely through the empty columns of the heater.  There is a heating element at the bottom of the heater, and as the oil flows over it, it is heated up and then it carries this heat around the heater.  The oil itself retains the heat for a long time, thus making it fairly efficient at transferring heat around the heater, and then out into the room.

The design of the columns on the oil filled heater is deliberately shaped to give a lot of surface area, thus transferring the heat from the heated oil much more readily through all the increased area the heat can emanate from.

Oil filled heaters are powered by electricity, thus making them slightly more expensive to run than a reciprocally sized gas heater.  They are normally used in rooms where it is not safe to run a gas heater, especially an unflued one, such as in bedrooms or studies.  Due to the very nature of the oil heater and the lower surface temperatures of the heater itself, they are usually considered quite a bit safer than electric fan heaters or radiant bar heaters, and as such are also a great heater to put into a children’s room or a nursery.  Even though they are fairly safe to operate, care must still be taken not to dry laundry by hanging it over the heater as the temperature can sometimes be hot enough to damage certain synthetic materials, or have them catch on fire.

A thermostat monitors the current temperature in the room, and shuts off the heating element whenever the temperature reaches the desired degree, thus minimizing extra running costs.

Typical oil heaters range in size from 300 watts to 2400 watts. The larger units cost more initially to buy and also to run, though they are quite adept at heating up larger spaces of course.  They are moderately cheap to buy, with typical costs for a 2400 watt heater anywhere from $50 to $75. It is often fairly easy to pick up second hand units as well, and surprisingly enough because of the hardiness of the heaters they are usually a pretty good buy.

Gas wall heaters are  commonly convection heaters, meaning that unlike radiant heaters which heat up objects in the room, gas heaters actually heat up the air in the room and make the entire room warm and great to walk into from outside, during winter!  It is possible to find radiant gas heaters, which work by heating up ceramic coils inside the heater, though the convection gas wall heaters are more popular.

The majority of gas wall heaters these days are vented, meaning that there is a pipe leading outside from the heater which brings fresh air from outside in to the heater so that the gas has oxygen and can burn, and also expels fumes from the burning gas back outside into the open air. You can find ventless heaters as well though these are more uncommon mainly because of safety reasons.  These days, ventless wall heaters come with an oxygen depletion sensor that can tell if the oxygen level in the room drops dangerously.  If using a ventless gas wall heater, it is also imperative to have a well ventilated room.

Gas wall heaters heat the entire room, including the air and this heat is usually disseminated around the room by use of a fan attached to the gas wall heater.  They are popular heaters for rooms that are used often during winter months, such as living rooms and they can also be great to have in a bedroom too.  Great for areas that are on city gas, they are also a real boon for those times when the electricity shuts off as most gas heaters can operate without needing electricity.

If, by chance, the pilot light does go off you will need to relight it, via a utility (or long handled) lighter and not a butane or normal lighter.  You should also turn the gas to your heater off at first and then turn it back on again just as you go to re-light the heater. Of course, some heaters start the pilot light via the use of electricity.  All heaters should automatically shut off the gas if the pilot light goes out for any reason.

Gas wall heaters come in different sizes, calculated on the amount of air they will need to heat up or the size of the room. They are generally safe to leave on while you step out for a few hours, providing they have safety features built in, though you should probably turn them down to a low heat so as not to waste gas and energy.

It goes without saying that if you plan on installing a gas wall heater, unless you really know what you are doing you should have someone who is qualified to do the job come in to install the heater rather than doing it yourself. In fact, in some places it is required that you have gas heaters installed by an authorized technician.

There are two common type of heaters, radiant heaters and blow or force heaters.  Radiant heat is heat that is released into the air from hot surfaces such as a hot panel on a gas heater, or an open fire, or an oil filled heater. This type of heat doesn’t warm the air, but rather it warms objects and people in a room.  It is a more gradual type of heat, not something that you feel immediately you turn the heater on, unless it is extreme heat.  Radiant heat gradually warms up the room and radiant heaters can heat up an object without actually touching it.

Wall heating panels or central floor heating usually use radiant heat, however portable radiant heaters are also very popular and useful when it comes to heating your home.

How a Radiant Heater Works

Radiant heaters work well, as long as you are in direct line with the heater, because of the way they work. Infrared rays emitted from the heater warm whatever they come in contact with. If they come in contact with you before something else, then they will heat you. If these rays come in contact with something else before you, for example a chair or sofa, they will heat that, not you.  They are more energy efficient than convection heaters as they only heat up objects in the room, not the entire room but you do have to be in a direct line with them.

Typically a radiant heater can be powered by any fuel source, including electricity, gas, propane gas, or even wood. In fact, a wood heater is a very good example of radiant heat. Electric radiant heaters are often fitted with ceramic panels or emitters which are heated up. Ceramic tubes are much safer to use than glass emitters which can tend to shatter or explode.

Portable radiant heaters are great for heating up that one room in your house that isn’t centrally heated. It is also a great idea to have them on hand if you live with people who are affected adversely by the colder weather, as you can heat up their room or living quarters to a more suitable level for them, without having to turn up the central heating in the whole house.

Due to their ability to heat up objects and people, but not the surrounding air, this also makes the radiant heater perfect for using in outdoor areas. A typical example of this is the patio heater.

Wall mounted radiant heaters are good to use in locations where there are a lot of people coming in and out of the room or the location, such as in a busy office building, small shops, and other industrial buildings. Using a conventional warm air heater in these situations would not be economical, nor would they work as well as a radiant heater.

If you are thinking of buying a radiant heater, make sure you understand its capabilities. Don’t expect it to necessarily heat up an entire room so when you walk in from outdoors you are met with an instant rush of warm air.

Many people choose the oil filled radiator over other portable radiators. An oil filled electric radiator is a radiant heater, meaning that the heater and parts (or the oil inside) heat up and radiate heat out into the room.  With an oil filled radiator it is actually the oil inside the heater that heats up and retains its heat, thus reducing electricity consumption.

They are very silent to operate as there is no fan, they don’t produce dust and are one of the more environmentally friendly heaters to use.  The radiant heat heats up objects and people in the room as the warmth diffuses around the room.  They are also safe to use, and rarely get hot enough to burn should you or anyone else in your home accidentally rub up against it.

Common components that most oil filled radiators have include a thermostat which allows you to determine at which point the electricity or other power source to the heater will shut off; a safety cut off so that if anything happens to the heater or it malfunctions all power is cut to the heater;  heat setting control so that you can determine how much wattage the heater is to use.

Most oil filled radiators are stand-alone, portable units that have wheels on the bottom so they can be easily rolled from room to room.  You can also buy wall-mounted oil filled radiators as well.

If you are looking for a heater that will heat up a room quickly, then I wouldn’t suggest an oil filled radiator.  These type of heaters are much better suited for more long-term, throughout the day or of an evening use.  They do work very well at heating up a living room or a bedroom or study of an evening, providing you are going to be turning them on and leaving them on for some time.  Once your room reaches its optimum heat (set by the use of a thermostat on the heater) the electricity is cut off from the unit, but the unit continues radiating heat for some time.

With more and more people choosing not to run their central heating systems these days, in order to cut back on electricity costs,  investing in a few oil filled radiators may be the solution. You can roll them around from room to room, and just heat up one or two rooms as opposed to heating up the entire house even if there’s no one in the room.

Look for an oil filled heater that has a thermostat and a 24-hour timer. That way you can set  the heater to come on thirty minutes before you arrive home, and you can also time it to shut off after everyone is in bed at night.

They are great heaters for using to heat up a room for a longer period of time, and they are safe, quiet and require almost no maintenance.

Oftentimes people forget, or don’t see the need for bathroom heaters.  After all, you can go take a shower and while you’re still nice and warm from the shower there’s no real need for a heater?  I disagree. Having lived in cool to cold climates for many years, and well, getting on in years, I believe that bathroom heaters are an absolute necessity.   I have also found that it is much, much easier to get children to go shower up and wash their hair if the bathroom is heated than if it is not. I do have a couple of stories to tell of finding grubby little children curled up asleep in bed, because it was too cold to shower!

Typically, bathroom heaters are white in color, made to blend in with most bathroom décor, and they also often offer instant heat, so you can turn them on when you step into the bathroom (or a bit before, while you’re preparing to shower) and expect that the room will heat up pretty much right away.

First of all, now that you are convinced of the need for a bathroom heater, you need to decide on what sized heater is best for your bathroom.  You should base this on the actual size of your bathroom, smaller rooms  heat up more quickly thus you don’t need such a big heater in your bathroom.  A good rule of thumb is to allow between 12 to 15 watts per square Foot.  So, if your bathroom is 10′ by 12′, or a total of 120 square feet, then you would need around a 1440 watt (minimum) to 1800 watt heater.

Wall Bathroom Heaters

Wall heaters are a very popular choice for a bathroom heater. Most come in either 240v or 120v, and they are commonly around 1500 watts, though you can find bigger wall heaters of course. Bathroom heaters typically have a white finish and most are built to actually fit into the wall, thus the area sticking out into the bathroom is really pretty unobtrusive–perfect for areas with small space.  There are also options that sit on top of the wall, and these are usually fairly slim models.

Ceiling Bathroom Heaters

Least intrusive of all, the ceiling bathroom heater is also built to fit up into your ceiling. Again, most models seem to be painted white, which is the color of choice for many bathroom fittings. Optimum mounting height for the ceiling bathroom heater is recommended to be eight feet from the floor, and further than six inches away from any wall.  It is possible to install it only six feet from the floor but that is the absolute minimum, and eight feet is far better.

Usually its fine for ceiling insulation to come in contact with these ceiling heaters as they are made specifically with this in mind.

Bulb Bathroom Heaters

These little beauties often come with either a white or silver finish. They do look a lot like lightbulbs, and just a quick note–often the price of the bulb heater may not include the price for the bulbs, so keep that in mind when comparing prices.

Some bulb bathroom heaters include an exhaust fan, others do not. Naturally the heaters without the exhaust fan are a good deal cheaper than the ones with.  Price is also determined by the amount of bulbs on the heating unit, with the four bulb units costing around $230, and the two bulb units costing anywhere from $70 to  $150 depending on the brand.

Baseboard Bathroom Heaters

I am not so fond of baseboard bathroom heaters, mainly because of the problems if any water should get into the electrical part of the unit, and because my kids have filled up the bath-tub to overflowing on more than one occasion, flooding the entire bathroom.   Apparently baseboard bathroom heaters are made in such a way to be safe, even from accidental flooding, as the electrical heating coil is completely covered by the heat transfer fluid inside the heater, and that is also completely sealed by copper tubing.

If children and bathtubs are not a problem for you, and you aren’t nervous about electrical appliances in the bathroom, then you might find a baseboard bathroom heater could be just right for you. The radiant heat may not be as fast to heat up a room, but it does quite an effective job and keeps the room warm even after the heater has been turned off, due to the radiant properties of this type of heater.

Towel Bathroom Heater

A handy little invention, the towel heater doubles as a heating unit for the bathroom and a towel or bathrobe warmer.   There’s not a lot of additional cost in buying one of these, they fit snugly onto the wall and I have to admit it is great to have a nice warm towel to wrap yourself in when you step out of the shower, even if the room is already heated.

For many years now Europeans have been enjoying the pleasure of not only having a warm, cosy bathroom but also enjoying warmed towels and bathrobes when they slip out of the shower.  The fascinating option of installing towel radiators in the bathroom is catching on all around the world now, especially in cooler climate countries.

Not only are towel radiators used to heat towels, but they also provide a great space-saving way to heat up your bathroom. The radiant heat that emanates from these heaters provides a steady, even heat.  They aren’t only limited to being used in a bathroom either, but can also be used in kitchens, laundry rooms and other hard to heat locations such as hallways and landings. Because they are so compact, hugging close to the wall, they are perfect for area where space is limited.

There are many different styles of towel radiators. One type of electric radiator has heated panels at the back, and a towel rack coming out from it. Others have heated panels set in wide sections, providing space for a towel to hang over the different sections.

When looking into buying towel radiators, you do need to look for quality units.  Cheaper towel radiators may have limited heating surface areas, heat may be distributed unevenly and you may end up with  hot spots which can even damage your towels. Prices also vary depending on the amount of control you have over the unit, and towel radiators that allow you to adjust the temperature settings are often a little more expensive than the the straightforward, ‘no controls’ units.

Towel radiators are usually available in a variety of different sizes, and they are also available in different colors, so they can match any room’s décor.  They are also available in as designer models too, with some featuring very modern designs.  They are not only useful items to have, but they also make exceptionally welcome house warming gift ideas, something practical yet that may not be bought immediately by new home owners.

Flat Panel Towel Radiators

Flat panel towel radiators come in different sizes, both the actual radiator and the panels. Flat panels are heated, and you simply hang your towel over these heated flat panels. Or, in some instances the panels are heated and hooks are set along the top of the panels, so you can hang your towel on the hook instead of directly over the panels.

Electric units offer different options. Some are directly wired into the electricity, others are directly wired but also offer a heat control option, and the third type is made to plug into an electrical socket, and it also has heat control options.

Common sizes for flat panel towel radiators are 16 to 24 inches, though some hydronic flat panel towel radiators can be as large as 36 inches wide.

Round Tube Towel Radiators

In place of the flat panels, instead there are round heated tubes attached to the radiator. These tubes are spaced to allow a towel or other item to hang directly over the tubes and thus get nice and warm.

These also come in differing sizes, ranging anywhere from 28 inches high to 45 inches high. The width of the units are usually around 23 to 29 inches.

Great for heating up bathrooms and other small rooms, and for keeping your towels dry and warm, the towel radiators are a great little appliance to add to any home.  Once you install one you will wonder what you ever did without it.

The most common wall heater is the electric wall heater.  Other alternative types of wall heaters include both the propane and the natural gas wall heater. Wall heaters are commonly installed in dens, basements, attics, garages, bathrooms and offices, or any room that is not reached by central heating.

There are two separate types of wall heaters. One is the heater that is attached to the wall via brackets or other fasteners, and then hooked up to an energy source.  Then you have the in-wall heaters, which are actually inset into a wall.

The in-wall heater is generally installed after the wall is finished, and not while the room is being built. Most come with a built in thermostat, which is important in regulating the temperature in rooms with single heating units. In-wall fan heaters are not cheap, and a good 2000 watt unit will end up costing you somewhere around $100 or slightly less.  If you are going to buy an in-wall electric heater, make sure that it comes with a good warrantee. Usually you should get ten years on the element and at least one year on all other components.  A 1,500 to 2,000 watt unit should be able to adequately heat up to a 150 square foot room without any difficulty.

The so called blue flame wall heater is usually fired by either propane or natural gas.  There are actually quite a few dual fuelled heaters on the market too, these days, which can use either energy source. When checking out these type of heaters, it’s good to make sure that there is a blower included, as often these end up being sold separately meaning you pay more for the heater than you originally planned.

The great thing with wall heaters is that they can be used to heat an entire house, if you like, or they can be installed and used to heat ‘add-on’ rooms, or workspace. They can also be added to a room or area that needs additional heat to what is already installed.

Gas wall heaters are generally more environmentally friendly and they are actually more efficient at heating their surroundings. However, in spite of this, many people still choose electric over gas. Why?  Well, it goes without saying that electric heaters are generally much easier to install than gas or propane heaters, and they can usually be used wherever there is electricity available.  Electric heaters also often end up being less costly than installing and running a gas heater.  Think about  it. Electric heaters simply plug into a power socket, but gas heaters require access to a gas run which is very expensive to install as an extra.

When all is said and done, the single unit electric wall heater is the most common wall heater currently in use in homes.  It is simple to install and fairly cheap to run.