Electric Heaters

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Heating By Electricity

Well the first thing you should know about electric heaters is that cost of heating will generally be substantially higher and have greater carbon emissions than alternative fuels (unless you're using green electricity). However, the installation and maintenance costs of electric heaters are generally lower than alternative forms of heating.

What is Green Electricity?

Green electricity simply means electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and wind turbines.

To reduce the energy requirements of any heating system your home should have good home insulation, good glazing and good draught proofing.

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Types of Electric Heaters

stores heat in bricks usually overnight,this stored heat is then slowly released the following day.

This type of heater basically consists of electrical elements embedded in insulating material in the shape of a brick. This brick in then charged with heat which it slowly releases.

Storage heaters give out their heat in two ways;

• By radiation from the front panel. Note that this heat cannot be turned down and so the heater will give out some radiant heat at night when it is charging up.
• By convection

  thereby heating the air to create convection currents. In the simplest storage heater the rate of heat cannot be controlled, but more advanced models have a thermostatically controlled mechanical damper and a fan which is connected to a separate electrical circuit that can be turned on at any time.

• These advanced features make the storage heater more responsive to your heating needs

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(instantaneous) are simpler than the storage heaters and cheaper to purchase and install. These instantaneous electric heaters do not store heat for later release; they provide heat on demand - when you need it.

This type of heater is more expensive to run as you cannot take full advantage of the off-peak rates. Theses heaters are connected in your home via a 13 amps socket and most direct acting heaters have a maximum output rating of 3kW.

There are a number of direct acting heating electric heating appliances, and they can be catagorised as;

• Convectors
• Fan Heaters
• Panel Heaters
• Radiant Heaters
• Electric Radiators

Convectors are designed to give out their heat as warm air through natural convection currents.

Fan heaters circulate the heat by fan assistance. They generally have variable speed control. A typical example of a fan heater is your hair dryer.

Panel heaters are usually slimmer than convector heaters and although a large portion of heat is given out by convection, some heat is given out by radiation from the hot front surface.

Radiant heaters are better for short term heating or for heating small spaces such as bathrooms as they are expensive to run. You can also get combined radiant heating and lighting units for bathroom areas.

Most electric heaters are portable or designed for wall mounting.

Electric radiators are usually oil filled and portable, and are designed to heat rooms. Many of these oil filled electric heaters are thermostatically controlled and are less expensive to run than fan heaters, for example.

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See also water heaters for more options.

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