9 Great Advantages of Using a Fan Heater

With the rising costs of gas and oil, home owners are on the lookout for ways to cut back on heating and cooling bills without sacrificing comfort. Enter the space heater.

Space heaters are a reliable way to heat the areas of a house, apartment or condo you use the most, without wasting energy trying to heat your entire home. When looking for the right model, consider the advantages a fan heater can provide.

A fan heater will probably give you the most bang for your buck, so read on to find out why one could be right for you!

A heater that uses a fan is the most affordable type; they work by blowing warmed air into a room. Oftentimes units have a ceramic heating element - ceramic plates and aluminum baffles - which get heated as electricity passes through. A fan blows the generated heat outwards.

Their simple design makes them as affordable as they are efficient. The heating unit heats up quickly and doesn't need much electricity to run. As a result, the upfront and long term cost of one is minimal.

You can buy one for as low as $20, with almost all but a few top models costing less than $50. Their versatility makes them an easy, low-risk investment to make.

One of the greatest advantages of a fan-forced heater is their portability. You can carry these compact units from room to room and enjoy customized heating anywhere! Many models come with carry handles so they're easy to tote.

They are generally very compact, come in one piece and often fit on a table top. All you need is a standard electrical outlet with no other installation or set-up required. The portability of a room heater makes it great versatile supplemental heat that's easy to use and store.

Bring one with you in an RV, to use while camping, or on vacation. If you need it to heat one room at a time, buy a single fan heater for the entire house! Their small size makes them ideal for small areas like bathrooms too.

While not completely silent, these heaters can be surprisingly undisruptive. If you don't mind a low hum, they're a great low-profile heating solution. They never get very loud, so any noise they produce won't outweigh the other benefits of affordability and portability provided.

Taking it one step further, a heater may in fact have the noise advantage! The white noise can be a soothing way to block out other noises as you're trying to sleep. Voices down the hall or cars zooming by outside can be much less of a distraction when you have on the steady whirling of a fan. If you plan on using one during bed time, look for a model with a programmable timer that will automatically turn off your unit after a certain time; saving you electricity as you sleep.

Many heaters offer a fan-only mode that lets you use the fan setting without the heater on. That means you can have winter heating and summer cooling in one convenient unit! Not all models have this option, so make sure the unit you want has a fan-only feature if it's something you want.

While a space heater lets you turn down the central thermostat of your home in the winter, a fan also keeps the A/C from overworking in the summer. A fan is a great supplement to your central air conditioner because it helps move cool air around in a room, creating a cool draft instead of stale air.

Fan-forced heaters come with a variety of functions, so think about what features are most important to you before you buy. They are in general very simple and convenient to use, and most heat around the same power - 1500 watts for your average indoor model.

Here are some other features you can look out for:

• A remote control let you change the settings from anywhere in the room
• Controls come in digital, dial or button styles
• A timer will automatically turn your unit off
• Oscillation helps distribute warmth throughout a room faster
• A carrying handle will make transporting them easy

Fan heaters are a popular choice for heating large, frequently used living areas for short periods of time since the entire space will become warm. An oscillating heater provides additional heating power.

Be careful to pick a model that matches your heating needs. Some units cycle on and off to maintain a constant temperature, and while this normally helps conserve energy, trying to heat a space too large will result in wasted effort. Heaters that are too powerful will consume a lot of energy, and result in a high utility bill. Find one with the wattage, BTUs and square feet coverage that best matches the rooms you will be heating.

Using a small heater allows you to turn down your central thermostat and heat only the rooms you're using the most, saving you energy at home. By reducing the amount of energy you consume you not only lower your monthly utility bill, you also contribute less greenhouse gasses to the environment.

Fan heaters operate on pennies a day, and the heat you feel from them can be directed to personal spaces and felt more immediately. There's no reason why you shouldn't add a heater, or multiple heaters, to your home today!