Portable Radiators

With colder weather here to stay for the next few months and many of us working from home, it is important that you are warm and feel comfortable at home.  If your central heating isn't getting your home warm enough or if you're looking to save money by not running your heating on constant or maybe you're in an area with no gas heating, then a portable heater is worth considering. 

 

You may consider using an electric heater if only requiring quick, short, targeted warmth. For example, if you're having a quick shower and are only in the bathroom for a short time, you can use a portable heater in one area rather than switching on the whole house's central heating. 

There are four main types of portable heaters: 

Fan heaters: Fan heaters use an electric coil to create heat, and then blow the warmth across the room. They are cheap and light but sometimes noisy.

Convector heaters: Convector heaters radiate warmth throughout the room. Like a fan heater, they have an internal heating element. However, instead of using a fan to circulate the warmth, they wait for hot air to rise and be replaced by cool air, which then gets heated. For this reason, convection heaters are slower to warm up than fans, but distribute heat more thoroughly. 

Oil-filled heaters: Use an electrical current within thermal oil, heating the oil and circulating it around the heater, a bit like water in a radiator. Oil-filled heaters tend to be more cumbersome than other types, as the oil adds weight, so they're perhaps less portable. They take a long time to warm up – normally somewhere in the range of 20 minutes, but they stay warm for a long time once they're turned off. Oil-filled radiators are cheap to run and there is no need to replace the oil. 

Halogen heaters: Halogen heaters radiate heat directly onto objects, rather than relying on convection to circulate the warmth. As a result, halogen heaters work quickly, and they're efficient and cheap to run.