Wall Heater Essentials

An efficient heater is essential to the comfort, safety, and well-being of your household. From people to their pets, keeping warm is a number one priority when the weather outside isn't so delightful.

On the other hand, you can only do so much to keep your family toasty before you start to notice the arrival of soaring heating bills!

If you want to enjoy the best of both worlds, a wall heater is an excellent choice, whether at home or in the office.

How to Choose a Wall Heater

Space heaters, infrared heaters, oil filled heaters, oh my! Feeling overwhelmed with the plethora of choices? Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing. A wall heater, however, stands out among the crowd.

There are many types of wall heaters out there, but a smart choice is an electric wall heater. There are many positive things to say about wall heaters, but mainly there are five chief reasons why a wall heater beats the rest: comfort, economy, safety, health, and power.

Wall Heater Comfort

There's a reason why the wall heater is also called the "comfort heater." A wall heater has a fan added to the heating element, thus creating assisted air movement.

The rapid, circulated air hits the heater's surface much more quickly than a convection heater would, prompting the heater to release more heat into the room. This also creates warmth faster so that you'll be able to enjoy it, sooner rather than later.

A wall heater's assisted air circulates the heat over substantial distances and is ideal for heating larger areas versus spot heating. Thus, a wall heater brings better, faster, comfort to you plus your guests and family.

Wall heaters are also recess installed, meaning they will not bulge out and cause your home to look like a 3-D move! They are slight, slender heaters that often blend right into the scenery. A comfortable home is also a home that's clear of clutter.

Wall Heater Economy

Installed on interior walls instead of exterior walls, an electric wall heater is provided better insulation. This saves your home the pain of energy loss. Of course, like any heater, a wall heater will be optimized in a home with insulated double-pane windows, as well.

Heaters that are installed on exterior walls loose heat and make that wall more difficult to insulate, resulting in a double loss.

Unlike central home heating systems, the wall heater can be switched on and off in individual rooms at individual times. If your family is enjoying a night together watching a film, there is no need to heat the kitchen, bedrooms, and baths when no one is in them.

Turning your wall heater on just before you intent to enter saves you big bucks each month. Plus, as noted above, a wall heater will quickly fill your space with heat making the need to "pre-heat" unnecessary.

In addition, most electric wall heaters will come equipped with an integrated thermostat. The thermostat will allow you to preset your indoor conditions, giving your wall heater instructions for the day.

By simply turning down your thermostat to, say 68° F, you'll be saving big bucks each year. The Consumer Energy Center says that for every degree lower you set your thermostat, between the 60° F to 70° F, you save up to five percent on costs! This is potentially much more, depending on your local utility provider.

Wall Heater Safety

The thing to note about safety is: not all wall heaters are manufactured equally! When searching for your specific wall heater consider these safety tips before buying.

Open heating elements
Cheap fans
Automatic safety
Cheap finishes
Lubricated motors
Poor construction materials
Certifications

The first bullet point is the most important factor to consider in the safety of your wall heater. There are some wall heaters with open heating elements. The heating element, or coil, is what initially produces the heat, before the fan kicks in.

Although these types of wall heaters are cheap, they are extremely dangerous. The exposed heating element puts everyone, but especially children and pets, in immediate danger of contact burns. They are extremely hot. In addition, the open coil can cause a nearby flammable object, such as a wool blanket, to spark and catch fire to your entire home.

Cheap fans made of thin plastic are another worry. Over time, these fans will become brittle, breaking off, and potentially cause a blockage in the fan's internal workings. Also, there is also the danger of a flyaway piece hitting someone.

An automatic safety switch is a good insurance policy against danger. If your wall heater should overheat, the automatic safety switch is programmed to cut off power, immediately, preventing a safety hazard from forming. Look for wall heaters with automatic safety features installed.

Cheap finishes can be bad news, especially with a machine designed to get hot. Finding a wall heater with an epoxy powder coated finish is a good habit. The finish keeps the unit from becoming too hot on the surface, plus it just preserve your heater's look for longer.

A lubricated, enclosed motor is self-sufficient. You do not have to risk breaking the heater or possibly injuring your fingers from regular maintenance.

Look to see what sort of materials your heater is constructed of. Does it have plastic parts? A good, safe wall heater will have tough construction materials, such as a steel panel or nickel chromium heating element.

Certifications are as important as your own homework. A well-made wall heater you can trust will often boast safety certifications or listings, such as UL, SA, ETL, and ANSI.

Wall Heater Health

Are electric wall heaters a healthy choice for you and your family? This can often be a tough choice and often comes down to your own decision. Only you know the specific needs of your family. However, for the most part a wall heater is a perfectly healthy choice of heating.

Environmentally, the electric wall heater emits no dangerous chemicals into the home or atmosphere, meaning less air pollution. As long as you monitor and engage your heating responsibly (ie. lowering the temperature on the thermostat) a wall heater can be a healthy, environmentally suitable choice.

This article has been discussing the important points of traditional electric wall heaters, however, should you or a loved one suffer from breathing complications (such as asthma or severe allergies) a healthier alternative is the ceramic wall heater.

Instead of a fan, a ceramic wall heater utilizes radiant heat. Fans can agitate an allergy sufferer's symptoms, especially in a pet home, by disturbing pet dander or dust and causing it to flow into the air. Radiant heat will not move air, but it will also not be as fast or effective in heating large areas.

Wall Heater Power

As stated above, wall heaters are powerful and effective methods of heating large rooms, yet still provide the convenience of single room heating.

Each heater is factory wired to perform at its maximum wattage potential. Some heaters are installed with a neat feature that allows you to change the wattage to a lower output.

You can do this with most any wall heater by moving the jumper wire - only taking a few minutes for skilled hands - but wall heaters like the Q-Mark series make it easy. Adjust wattage to save energy when all you need to be is toasty, not roasted.

Hopefully, this article has made your search for the perfect wall heater easier. For more information, browse our selection ofwall heaters.