Home Heating - Portable Electric Space Heaters

Portable Electric Heaters

The first thing that comes to mind with portables is concern about fire hazards and there are tree answers to that:

All modem portables have fail-safe thermostats to shut them off if they get overly hot.
All modem portables have tip-over switches to shut them off should they be tipped over.
All modem portables have three-pronged plugs to protect against electrical shorts.


All of these things are worthwhile, but it is true that accidents can happen and, so,

extra caution is always the watch word!


Examples:

There are portable heaters for many purposes. Some of them are:

Heating a room

Heating specific areas in a room-people, for instance

Heating by natural convection or fan forced

Heating by fan-forced action, strong or modest

Heating with power of 1500 watts or less

Heating to keep a room from freezing temperatures

Heaters that are shielded

Heaters that are very quiet

Heaters that are very small

Heaters that can be fan operated only

Heaters filled with liquids

Heaters that swing back and forth

Heaters that are long like normal baseboard ones

All portable heaters have thermostats, --some more accurate than others.

All heaters operating at 1500 watts have the same power regardless of how they are advertised.

All portable heaters are natural convection heaters unless their fans are strong ones.

All portable heaters must have strong fans if they are to have 25% less cost than any natural convective ones.

Even temperatures

Very quick on-off response times

No heat losses


Advantages:
Very low purchase costs
No installation costs (unless house wiring is inadequate for 1500 watts)
Ease of carrying
Full choice of placement in a room if the cord is long enough. NOTE THAT ALL
HEATER CORDS ARE 16GAGE AND NEVER SHOULD BE PLACED UNDER A RUG.
Ease of storage when heating season is over.
Can serve as a very adequate source of home heating with common sense care.
Radiation travels in straight lines and so portable radiation heaters are particularly
good for heating specific things like people.
Portables with strong fans can operate at 25% less cost than natural convection
heaters, either portable or normal ones.
Portables with strong fans can put heat directly where people are, 0-6' above the floor.
No limit for furniture positions.
No baseboard heaters and their cleaning problems.

Disadvantages
Heaters use electricity -ordinarily an expensive source-but initial costs, conveniences, and where they put their heat can easily justify them.
Some fire chiefs do not look favorably on any portable heaters for safety reasons.