Options to Consider when Choosing the Right Heater for the Home

Effectively heating the home, both in terms of performance and cost, is a hugely important aspect of domestic living. Unsurprisingly, with over a century of commercial development behind them, heater manufacturers have produced an immense range of options for every home owner to choose from, from the electric fan heater to the storage or panel heater.

Knowing which one is best is dependent on a number of factors, such as position, area size, heating demand and even the family lifestyle schedule. Style is also something that many home owners like to consider, with the Dimplex panel heater amongst the most aesthetically impressive on the market. However, a practical final decision usually sees a combination of heater types being used.

Many home owners go straight for the storage heating option, due as much to the prevalence of information and marketing efforts as anything else. However, there is no doubt that they are hugely convenient and cost effective, particularly if the model chosen is an automatic. In that case, the heater itself can be programmed to turn on and turn off, ensuring that its energy saving potential can be fully realised.

The storage heater works quite simply, with an insulated box containing heat retaining bricks that store heat created by electricity during the night, when the low rate night safer electrical tariff is applied and money can be saved. The heater than releases that heat during the day, when it is required. Typically, the bricks retain their heat for up to 14 hours, meaning heat can be had throughout the day.

Also, the range of options in this heater is quite wide, with different sizes allowing both large and small areas to benefit. The addition of convector heaters and fan assisted storage heaters are also available. These may be useful when extra heat is needed during the day, when higher costs are an issue, and can help to increase heating efficiency in terms of speed. However, neither change the fact that storage models are robust and heavy, so space and wall strength are factors in choosing their location.

Another option is the fan heater, which is one of the most popular types in its portable form. This type of heater heats the air and then forces the hot air out into a room through a fan mechanism. The advantage of this is that heat can be distributed very quickly, transferring the heat almost immediately much further away from the actual heater that any radiation technique can accomplish. Think of the cold draught one can feel despite sitting 10 feet or so from a doorway or window.

The negative aspect to this type of heater, however, is that heat loss is very high. Heat, after all, is almost impossible to contain once released and the influence of colder air ensures a diminishing heating action as the air moves away from the heater. The only reason why this method of heating works is that hot air floods the room.

However, it also means that large spaces are not heated effectively, and unless the particular space is compact, the cost in heating can be quite high. So, for this reason, the fan heater is most commonly used as a portable extra heating method to complement the main system, or are used in small spaces like single bed rooms or bathrooms.

A third option is the panel heater, which is more slim line in design than the storage alternative, and more effective in sustaining room temperatures that the fan option. Amongst the Dimplex panel heater range are models that are a mere 10cms deep and stylishly designed with blackened glass facades.

However, the method it uses is radiation, which is the slowest method of distributing heat. The panels are electrically heated, but can retain heat very effectively. They emit their heat steadily, and while this does mean patience is required to fully warm a room, the heat is not lost.

What is more, their performance tends to last for years, with even old models maintaining a relatively good efficiency sometimes for longer than an electric storage heater and electric fan heater. And with some 80 percent of energy retained and emitted as heat, the conversion rate of the panel option makes it almost unbeatable.