Space heater to heat small room.

[Hammerjoe]

I am now working from home and use one of the rooms of the house as an office and I would like to get a space heater to keep the room more cozy.

I was thinking of getting an infrared heater but I would like to hear the opinions of other folks of what they are using to heat up small rooms efficiently.

The room or not very big probably around 200-400sqft.

 

[seige101]

Oil filled portable radiator. Virtually silent operation, not too hot to the touch and once warm provides a nice steady even heat. Usually they have low medium and high modes 500, 1000 and 1500 watts and a thermostat to turn it on and off. The only con i can think of is it takes a bit longer to heat the room up.

 

[Circus]

Radiant ( infrared) is for sitting in front of but the air stays cold. Sort of like and outdoor campfire. Convection warms the air. Sort of like a warm day.

 

[Hammerjoe]

Would an oil filled portable heater be more efficient than an infrared heater?

I just measured the room and its an 11X14 Sqft

 

[begreen]

Both will work, just stay under $100 and avoid gimmickry like the EdenPure. The oil filled will be safer and would be my choice. Some infrared can catch something on fire if it gets in front of it like a curtain.

 

[wahoowad]

Another vote for oil filled, preferably one with 3 settings or thermostat.

 

[Hammerjoe]

Ive been reading about those and it seems they are very slow heating up the place and I would prefer something faster that I go in the morning turn it on and within minutes it heats up the room and keeps it that way until I shut it off at the end of the day.
I dont want to have to turn or fiddle with timers to have it on hours before I need to start my work to have a warm room.
I also dont see how that is more efficient if it has to be running way ahead of time.

 

[begreen]

Where have you been reading? They are not that slow. If set to 1500w it only takes setting it for 30 minutes ahead, not hours. 1500w of heat is going to take a certain amount of time to warm up a room. The time it takes will depend on how cold the room is and how well insulated it is, not the technology behind the 1500w of heat. If the room is ice cold you could have a small wood stove in there and it would still take a while to bring up the mass of the room to a comfortable temp.

 

[Circus]

All electric heaters are the same efficiency. Baseboard style electric heaters are quiet, works well, pretty cheap but its controls didn't last very long so I bought a LUX PSP300 thermostat for a wall outlet to control the heater. Be careful not to cover the heater.
If you expect to heat a room 20 degrees in 15 minutes you'd need a big furnace.

 

[Fod01]

We have 3 kinds. Dish, fake woodstove with blower, and a baseboard type with no fan. The fake stove warms the room quickly, is fun to watch. The baseboard does a great job without the noise. The dish is a line of sight heater, so only your back feels warm.

I had an oil filled radiator in the past. If you can stand to turn it on before you make your coffee, I'd opt for that with the baseboard a close second.

 

[Hammerjoe]

I was thinking of getting this Infrared:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Infrared-H...?ie=UTF8&qid=1416625055&sr=8-1&keywords=dr968

As for oil heaters I could use some recommendations

 

[begreen]

My first gripe with that unit is not the price. It's the BS claim that it produces 60% more heat. It produces no more heat than this unit or an oil-filled radiator.
http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-754200-...1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1416625737&sr=1-1

 

[Hogwildz]

What does BS mean?

 

[Fod01]

Biased salespitch

 

[Swedishchef]

Biased salespitch

lol!!

 

[Circus]

If you decide to use two electric heaters it's wise to power them using outlet branches powered from opposite legs of your mains in your breaker box. Balanced load.

 

[newburner]

We have the oil filled radiator style too. I would recommend them. It was 12° last night and the oil filled kept our bedroom toasty all night. They do take a bit longer to heat the room than a fan heater but the purpose of them is to create sustained, even heat for long periods. Which they do quite well.

 

[peakbagger]

Unless you buy a minisplit, electric heat is electric heat with regards to efficiency. Some folks get cold feet and tend to overheat the room to compensate. There are heated rubber mats that work pretty well. If you plan to work from home and need AC in the summer, I would buy a mini split. As soon as my AC unit dies, I plan to replace it with mini split

 

[ewdudley]

I thought I was special when they gave me a corner office when I started my most recent job, but turns out it's the cold office nobody wanted. "It's just a fault in the heating system design, there's really nothing we can do except get you an electric heater."

So got a nice quiet electric heater and that keeps the room as warm as needed, but down under desk and work bench were still cold and miserable against the outside walls.

Then the facilities guy came up with a 150 watt "under desk radiant heater panel". It provides just the right amount of heat exactly where I need it and meanwhile I can turn down the other electric heater to keep the room cool and comfortable for working.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1045&bih=562&q=under desk radiant heater panel&oq=under desk radiant heater panel&gs_l=img.3...1747.12782.0.13056.41.9.7.25.32.0.97.751.9.9.0.msedr...0...1ac.1.58.img..12.29.805.6MjeOiSAcwQ

 

[semipro]

I use one of those panel heaters under my desk at work and love it.

 

[Hammerjoe]

I stopped at the local home hardware store to look at the options and the wife made the decision to get this one :

(broken link removed to http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Heating-Ventilation-Cooling-Home-Comfort/Heating/Heaters/Portable-Convection/Portable-Infrared-PTC-Heater-with-Hepa-Filter-Technology/_/N-2pqfZ67l/Ne-67n/Ntk-All_EN/R-I3836046?Ntt=infrared)

The main factor in the decision was the HEPA filter and UV lamp.

And it was on sale for $159.99.
We took it home and another unusual feature of this heater is that it has three heating modes compared to the others that usually only have two modes.

This heater can work with 750W, 1000W or 1500W (they call it small, medium, large room setting).

I verified the wattages with a killawatt monitor.

The machine seems to be working fine, it heats pretty fast, raises the temperature of the room in minutes, very quiet.

The room I am using it is 11 by 14 which would fit the definition of small room I guess.

My question from an efficient (meaning less electricity used) what is the best setting to use?

Is it better to use the small room setting (700W) or use the large room (1500W) to keep the room at a steady temperature?

My doubt is that at 700W it probably going to be on for longer periods of time to keep the temp steady, while at 1500W it would be on for much shorter periods of time but using more electricity in the process.

Whats best?

 

[begreen]

If the office is very cold I would try the large room setting for warming up the room then switch to the small room setting for better temperature regulation. In my office I have a great old Braun heater that I leave on 600W and it does fine but the office doesn't get much below 60F at any time when unoccupied.

 

[semipro]

I'd suggest running it on the low or medium setting if you can purely for safety reasons. On high these things put quite a load on a circuit and can easily overload it if other high draw items are running at the same time.
I'm not sure where this thing is made but I've noticed on less expensive "made in China" heaters that the cords can really heat up. That's not a good sign.

Based on efficiency only I'd guess that the highest setting may provide the most BTUs per power consumed just because of the addition of the UV lamp. That is, assuming the lamp always runs at the same intensity, which I suspect it does.

If its not too hard to do I'd consider putting some kind of washable foam pre-filter on the inlet to extend the life of the HEPA filter. Unless the HEPA filter is washable you may find you spend quite a bit on replacements over the years.

 

[bsruther]

We used ceramic heaters for years to supplement our heat. They worked well, but I didn't trust them unless we were in the room. Bought an oil filled for this winter at lowe's for 40 bucks and it's been great. Keep it in the basement on a timer and when we come down here in the evening, the entire 300 sq ft area is very comfortable, and we like the radiant heat a lot better than the blowing hot air.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah 1,500 watt for long periods are murder on the outlets. Run it that way and after a little time walk around the room and put your hand on the other outlets on the same circuit. They will be warm. Not as warm/hot as the one it is plugged into, but warm just the same.

If possible, plug it into one of the 20 amp circuits in the kitchen or dining room. But if your house is like ours they strung entirely too many outlets on the 20 amp kitchen and dining room circuits.