Submitted by Stardate8675903 t3_102m3ku in BuyItForLife
I live in the deep south of the US where we don't see many hard freezes, and as a result, my house isn't equipped with heating. I'm looking for a space heater to heat my rent house with, and my landlord has given me a budget of $200 to get a heater that would belong to the house. The front area and bedroom together are about 400 square feet, what can I do to get the best out of the money to heat my home?
I upgraded to an oil filled portable radiant heater. I really love it. Same wattage as ceramic fan (1500W in this case) but it seems sturdier. Maybe also less likely to burn out if overloaded? In any case would recommend.
Also less likely to start a house fire, and safe to leave on overnight if needed, with the added bonus of not drying you out as badly.
Does it have a lower wattage setting than 1500? If it does, have you tried that one, to see if it keeps you warm enough?
I have. 600 and 900 watt. This may not be helpful...but, I find it's a heater that's got a lot of "torque", if you get my meaning. There isn't that blast of hot air, but just a constant even temperature. As for warm enough, that depends on so many factors. I suppose the best compliment I can pay is that I sometimes turn it down, sometimes up, but I haven't paid much attention to the settings specifically.
I have 5 of the oil-filled radiator heaters, one for almost every room. I've never needed or even used the high wattage setting, in the 20 or so years I've been using them. I think my are a combination of 900 and 1500 watts per heater.
Mine shuts off if it gets knocked over too, least it’s supposed to. Throws a lot of heat.
I’m an electrician, please buy an oil filled heater.
I've done the store brands that cost like $15 and have the fall sensor or Holmes branded ones. With that said recently stayed in relatives basement and they had the dish style heater and those really work well but its like a laser beam of heat.
Why not an infrared one? Heard they last longer than the oil heaters. The hundred dollar ones dont seem to last more than 2 or 3 years.
Parents had Oil filled De’longhi heaters. They last forever.
Infrared emits infrared light to warm some surfaces.. it feels nice on skin, but doesn’t effectively heat a space.
The oil filled heater slowly warms a large mass of oil, without overloading an electrical circuit as electric coil fan heaters can. Once the oil is warmed sufficiently, the heater just maintains the temperature and the oil continuously transfers warmth to the air. The oil never gets hot enough to catch or start a fire, but is definitely hot to the touch.
Combining a small fan to circulate air with an oil filled heater is probably the safest combination. Both for your electrical system and for reducing risk of fire.
Hope that makes sense. Forced fan heaters cause electrical failures every year, which can be very expensive to fix. They also cause many fires!
We have no furnace and live in the cold northlands of the US. We supplement our wood stove with oil filled heaters by delonghi and they are fantastic. (Yes, expensive to run heaters but our furnace is kaput so — cheaper than any other option we currently have)
De'Longhi DeLonghi TRD40615E
I recommend this one you can find off amazon. Its well built with steel and only a small amount of plastic on the front panel and feet. You can set the temperature between 5C-28C (41F-82F) and it has 3 power settings and an ECO mode. setting 1 is 700W, 2 is 900W, and 3 is 1500W. When Eco mode is turned on it will run at the highest power that you have set until it reaches the set temp and then switches to a lower power to maintain the heat as needed.
Its silent except for a click when changing power settings which I like and doesnt dry out the air the same way ceramic heaters can. Its a bit heavy at 20 something pounds but the wheels make it easy to move around. It can take a while for it to heat up but it also takes longer to cool off which can be helpful if the power goes out or if you want to turn it off before going to bed. I also feel safer since its harder to start a fire with one of these.
I have used the radiant oil filled heaters to supplement our air to air heat pump in north Florida. I'm pretty sure it has 3 setting for wattage 1500 being the highest as well as a thermostat. It will run me out of our bedroom if I'm not careful with the settings! I'v been using the same heater , I picked up used, for years!
Can it heat up a 30x30 area?
I don't have an area that big to tell you
They do refund it for areas up to 250 square feet
What size is your area?
9x16 so 144ft square. I set it at 25 and kept me warm at the lowest power no problem
How does it take to heat up your room?
From 20c to 25c took around 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours I think. I haven't had to use it since its been warm ever since the -20c weather a while ago. My windows had seal issues which I've fixed since then so it would probably take a bit less now. Either way these heaters take a while to get warm compared to other types of heaters but they also take a while to cool off if the power goes out.
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Zen_Popcorn t1_j2umyad wrote
I can’t provide a specific product recommendation for BIFL (yet) but I can provide “some” insight for now
The advertised room size doesn’t matter. If it pulls more energy from the walls, it spits out more heat. 1200W large heater is just as warm as 1200W small heater. The energy transfer medium is probably what matters more, like infrared vs convection