Portable Home Heater: Guide on Buying It Successfully

Finding a cheaper solution for homeowners to heat their lovely home and finally can provide warn comfort temperature to their family is available in a wide range of options. There are many kinds of home heaters, and due to this situation you may be confused to make a decision. But if you are looking for one to complement your existing central heating system then portable heater for residential use (or familiar known as portable home heater) is great idea.

Well, today we can also find a lot of brands and models of portable home heaters. And therefore, you may need to consider some crucial issues before making deal to buy. Below are some of those crucial issues that you must take into consideration:

Power rating or size

Like other regular heating appliances, the heating outputs of portable home heaters are also available in a wide range of choices. This is purposed to accommodate anyone who has different requirement of sq-ft large area to be heated.

The power rating is usually rated and measured by Watts (especially for electric-powered units) or BTUs (British Thermal Units).

Avoid purchasing wrong power rating; otherwise the heater will not work optimal and less efficient. Lower size can lead to less powerful performance, and too over size can lead to inefficiency result and even can result a lot of harmful pollutants inside of the room (especially for gas-powered units). Furthermore, the overheating problem will be more common in the oversize situation.

Determining the fuel type

When it comes to choosing the fuel, you may find two major options; electric and propane! Each type has pros and cons.

For electric models, they are the safest unvented system, relatively safer to operate (welcome idea to be used in enclosed areas), and easier to install. But they are typically slower to warm up, more heating costs to operate and during power outages they cannot provide heat!

And for propane-powered models, they are lower up to 50 percent in heating costs (propane prices are slightly lower than electricity prices), more powerful and quickly performance to warm up the room, and keep working well during power outages. But they also have downsides that you have to concern, such as; you need more concern to the venting system, make sure it is well installed (either for the unit itself or for the room), therefore you cannot use them in enclosed areas!

If you choose to use combustion units (like propane-powered model), avoid purchasing and using unvented models for better safety! And it is more recommended to choose vented combustion portable home heaters!

Check the safety features!

Always keep in mind that the safety is something that you must always prioritize when shopping! And one of familiar ideas to make sure you will purchase the safest model is by considering and checking the safety features! These features can be overheat-safety-controller, flame resistant mechanism, tip-over controller, etc.

Don’t forget also to consider other features that will be helpful to make easier to operate your new portable home heater, such as; programmable thermostat, timer, temperature level display performance, and so on.

Image source: Amazon.Com

Read also the safety checklists on using outdoor propane heaters!