Buyers Guide - Heaters
Defreeze your winters with an efficient heater! Flood your home with supplemental warmth provided by heaters. These units use oil or fan or radiant rods for warming up a space within minutes.
Bring home a heater that is perfect according to the space, budget, and has all the features required to keep you comfortable during the chilly season. Before making up your mind for buying one, chalk out all the points that you need to consider. Zeroing upon a heater can be a daunting affair but this guide will help in simplifying the process.
Radiant or room heaters use infrared technology. They heat up a space by reflecting heat from the heated element. The quartz rod heats up the surrounding objects and life forms and not the surrounding air. These heaters are ideal for small rooms and of for warming up one or two people. The size of the rods also affects the amount of area a heater can warm up. These compact heaters are available in tower or box models and are quite energy efficient. These heaters are appreciated for no dependency on air movement.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Room Heater
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Silent operation | Unable to heat up a given space within a short span or time |
| Inexpensive | Not ideal for evenly heating |
| Designed for small-range heating | Exposed heating element may lead to fire and safety hazard |
Designed to blow hot air generated around the heated element, the fan heaters are considered as one of the most powerful heaters in terms of heating capacity. These are generally used for directing heat towards the required area or heating up a space within a short span of time. The heaters are fitted with powerful fans that can project heat at a reasonable distance. Not only this, these heaters have heat regulators and auto cut-off systems. These heaters find application in large bedrooms, home offices, and large office spaces.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Fan Heater
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Compact in size and portable | Noisy operation as the fan tend to make noise at full speed |
| Rapid heating process | Overheating of the unit |
Oil or convection heaters are considered as one of the most energy-efficient unit. These heaters have heat transfer oils and electric heating elements for heating up a given space. Electricity is used for heating up the oil present inside the columns or fins. Oil or liquid present in the fins never requires refills. Heat generated in this process is transferred through natural air circulation method or through an air circulating system.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Oil Heater
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Suitable for the spaces where that heater is required for longer period of time and can operate unattended. | Time taken to heat up a given space is little bit longer than other types of heaters. |
| The outer body of the heater never gets heated up, thereby making it safe to use around kids and pets. | In absence of air movement then the heater may fail to distribute heat evenly. |
Online and offline markets are flooded with heaters of different kinds and models. One needs to be aware about all the useful features to make a just decision. Some of the features to consider are as follows:
Latest heater models have automatic shut-off system. These systems shut down the heater in case of overheating, tripping, touching of protective grill, and related.
Always make sure that the heater has a long power cord for easy placement of the heater. Also, the cord should be insulated properly and material used should be ISI certified.
Portable heater models must have an insulated handle. These handles come handy when shifting a warm heater from one room to another.
Do take a proper look at the capacity and energy rating chart to ensure that the heater will be adequate for the given space and will not consume a lot of energy.
To maintain adequate temperature in a room, a heater must have a thermostat. This helps in keeping a track of the temperature and adjusting the same in the case of requirement. This also leads in conserving energy.
Heaters are used for raising temperature of a given space/area. When in use, these units emit intense heat which can sometimes lead to overheating of space or can even lead to fire. One has to make sure that the vents are always clear of obstruction and unit is never in contact with flammable material. While placing a heater unit, ensure that the surface is not crocked or tilted. Following tips will help in avoiding any mishap: