Portable heaters are the great for warming up spaces, rooms or areas in your home. They can also be brought and carried anywhere, making them great for vacations or trips.
What to look for when buying a portable space heater
Noise: A noisy portable heater will quickly become annoying to most people. Check user reviews for the noise level reported. Also make sure that you position the heater on a surface where it doesn’t rattle.
Style: Let’s be honest, portable space heaters aren’t always a pretty sight, and can make your living room feel and look like a garage. However some brands offer a more stylish look that will make the unit easily integrate into a modern home.
Thermostat: All portable space heaters have a thermostat. This makes the heater automatically turn off when the space has reached the desired temperature. Some units will display the temperature in numerics, others just have a turn-knob.
Safety features: Most space heaters (but not the cheap ones) have some type of safety feature. This will make the unit switch off if it tips over, or if the unit is covered by a piece of fabric.
Automatic Shut-off: Some units have an automatic shut-off feature, which will disable it after 12 hours (hours can very). This is very useful when the heater is used in larger spaces like workshops and garages, and can save you a lot on the electrical bill. There’s no reason for a heater to heat up that garage while you’re not even home.
Size: For the most part, compact is a good thing. This will allow you to place the unit in any location you desire. However, the more efficient heaters are typically larger in size, and that might not be a problem if you are just placing it on the floor somewhere.
Carry handle: It is always convenient when a portable heater has a practical carry handle.
Heat settings: Most heaters have different heat setting that will adjust the amount of heat the unit produces, and ultimately how fast the fan rotates.
ECO-mode: A space heater can sometimes automatically adjust the amount of heat it produces depending on the room temperature, ie. go to “low” mode when the temperature is not too far from the thermostat setting. This will allow you to save a little on the electric bill.
Fan only: Space heaters will typically provide the option of Fan only. This allows the fan to rotate without heat, simply displacing air. This will allow you to use the portable heater as a fan to cool you during summertime.
Remote control: Some units like the Taotronics comes with a remove control. This can be useful if the unit is placed in hard-to-reach places, or if you are simply too lazy to get off the couch.
Oscillation: Some spaceheaters will turn the heat distribution in an angle from side-to-side. This make a the heater distribute the air more evenly, and is useful for larger spaces. it is mostly seen in the tower-type heaters.