Choosing an Energy-Efficient Heater for Your Home
Staying warm in the winter is key to staying happy and healthy, and if you find that you sometimes need an extra blast of heat, an electric heater could be the answer.
Even if you live in a well-insulated house with gas central heating, you may have cold spots, areas without radiators, or times when you want a quick bit of warmth without switching the whole heating system on.
If this sounds familiar, investing in one or two standalone economical electric heaters could be the answer.
When economy electric radiators are a good solution
If you don’t have any heating in your home at all, then installing electric radiators in all the rooms is probably not a good idea. In this situation, you should be looking at night storage heaters, or even heating with oil, gas or LPG. However, there are some occasions when economical electric heaters really are the best solution, such as:
β’ To create a focussed heat in an unheated room, such as a conservatory or outside office
β’ To maintain a comfortable temperature for an elderly person, a baby or someone who has limited mobility
β’ As a precaution, in case your boiler ever breaks down
It’s important to realise that, even if you choose economy cheap radiator electric radiators with the very best energy ratings, they are still going to cost more to run than central heating if you’re trying to heat the whole house. But if you’re the type of person who only heats one room at a time, they could work out cheaper than putting a whole house heating system into action.
What types of economy electric radiators are there?
There are number of different types of heaters suitable for your home. These include:
β’ Oil filled radiators
β’ Electric convection heaters
β’ Halogen heaters
β’ Fan heaters
β’ Electric bar fires
β’ Wall mounted panel heater
β’ Wall mounted fan heater
The first thing to decide when choosing a new heater for your home, is whether you need it to be portable or not. If you intend to use it for supplementary or occasional heating, which could be in any one of several rooms, choosing a portable unit will give you the flexibility you need. If you only want to heat one place, such as an unheated study or your conservatory, then a wall mounted heater will be less intrusive.
Which type of heater is most efficient?
All electric heating units are actually 100 per cent efficient. This is because they turn every watt of energy they use into heat, but this does not mean they are going to be cheap to run. The way to check how much they are going to cost you to run is to look at the energy rating of the unit.
The energy rating is stated on every electrical appliance you purchase, and is usually stated in Watts. The higher the Watts, the more that device will cost you to run. There are a couple of other things to consider in terms of efficiency, which have to do with what you are looking to achieve.