Portable Electric Space Heaters

Benefits

• Inexpensive to purchase (prices range from $15.00 to $150.00)
• Saves Energy (can heat one room without heating entire house)
• 100% efficient (no loss of heat through ducts)

Types of Portable Heaters

• Radiant: Warms solid objects, including walls, ceilings, floors and people
• Convective: Warms the air in the room. Some systems use a fan to move the air.

Choosing a Heater

The chart below provides specific information about radiant heaters, as well as passive and fan-forced convective heaters. Some heaters combine radiant and fan-forced convective systems. The use of the heater and its safety feature are also important considerations.

Chart: Delivery Systems for Electric Resistance Heaters

	Radiant	Passive Convective	Fan-Forced Convective
Common forms of This Type	coil heaters, ribbon heaters	baseboard heaters and portable units (radiator shapes)	wall-mount toe-kick, and portable units (ceramic disc heaters)
How It Works	a radiant heating system uses a hot surface to heat nearby objects and people	a passive convective system heats air and air circulates around the room without a fan	a fan-forced convective system also heats air, but uses a fan to push the heated air around the room.
Advantages	provides heat to objects without heating the air	provides slow, constant, even heating of a room	provides faster heating of an entire room.

Understanding how zonal heating works

Electric resistance space heat allows room-by-room variation in temperature and heat systems. Unused areas of a home can be kept at a lower temperature. Zonal heating also has additional benefits: no distribution losses, low maintenance costs, flexibility in remodeling and additions, and compatibility with passive solar and well-insulated homes.

Sizing Permanently Installed Units

Permanently installed heaters must be sized correctly. The Energy Outlet™ has a handout that will help to size electric heaters according to room size and the insulation levels in a house.

Copyright Alan Van Zuuk