Indoor Propane Heater (Types and Proper Installation)

As the name implies, indoor propane heater units are usually referred and always associated to as room heating units because basically they are designed to be used for heating a portion or certain of a building! But there are also some of them that purposed and designed for heating outdoor! The propane fuel is stored into a pressurized tank; therefore they are typically portable in design and easier to be moved and installed. Although we can install them practically, but they are also subject to installation and limitation requirements for better safety and protection of property and users! And they vary in and sizes (BTU power heating capacity) and designs of the way to heat the space.

More Types

Some of popular types of indoor propane heaters that we can find at the marketplace are radiant models, wall-mounted installation design, vented or ventless models, and circulating type space heating units! Radiant models are typically referred to as radiant infrared space heating units that will heat the room as well as the same way of the sunlight when warming up the surface of the earth, so thus the object will get warm more quickly before heating the surrounding air. Wall-mounted models, as the name suggests this type is usually superior to be mounted on the wall for more space saving and keep out of reach of your children or your pets.

If you are looking for indoor propane heater that can be powerful on resulting blue flame to warm up the room, then circulating-design space heating unit is one of the right recommendations. It works similar to the working principle of a central air.

And for more practical installation, you can try combustion propane heater that supported to be unvented (ventless models), but if you seriously concern to the safety- it is much more recommended to avoid using unvented combustion heaters! There are more extra concerns when using unvented combustion units to keep the unit work safely, otherwise there are some potential hazards that you have to encounter, like the O2 depletion problem inside of the room (will cause CO poisoning and asphyxiation)! So, once again for better safety; it’s much more recommended to choose and use vented combustion heaters than unvented combustion heaters!

Proper installation & safety checklists

The installation must be finished properly in order to make sure the indoor propane heaters keep working and running properly, efficiently and safely! And there are some crucial issues to take into consideration for the installation (depending on the type of the unit itself). Although most of them come in portable design but they are not allowed to be used for heating bathrooms because can lead to tilt-over accident or even the unit will fall into the bathtub or an amount of water that can fall over into the unit. Below are more safety checklists to properly install and use indoor propane heater:

1. Like written before, avoid choosing and installing ventless propane heating unit for indoor use!
2. Make sure the location of the installation is far enough from any combustible materials like pieces of furniture, curtains, towels, wood door, wood window, and so on.
3. For the installation of wall-mounted model, avoid choosing the combustible wall surface for the installation.
4. Make sure the heater is safe enough from foot traffic accident! ‘for radiant units (at least there are around clearance of 36 inches in the front and 18 inches in the sides and rear), for air circulating space heating unit (at least there are around clearance of 12 inches from the rear and sides)’ – according to NFPA 54!
5. And always follow the manufacture instructions on how to install properly your unit, because different type of different brand usually requires a certain different procedure for the installation.

Safety installation issues for ventless indoor propane heaters

Once again, it is not recommended to use this type for indoor use if you seriously concern to the safety! But if you are stiff to use it, especially for heating bedroom & bathroom, below are pieces of important information that you must concern:

1. The heater must have O2 depletion sensor “ODS”, so thus you can monitor the level of Oxygen in your room. Use also a stand-alone Oxygen depletion sensor if necessary for better safety.
2. You may also have one listed wall-mounted propane heater but make sure first that the input rating of the unit is not over than 10,000 BTUs per hour for bedroom and 6,000 BTUs per hour for bathroom. This is purposed to make sure that the heater is relatively small in size and incorporate in ODS.
3. Turn off the unit immediately if the O2 level decreases drastically!
4. And always turn off your ventless indoor propane heater while not in use!

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