I'm looking for a smallish electric ceramic or space heater to be used in a single room to take the chill off. Most of the times we're only in one or two rooms of the house and it doesn't make sense to heat the entire house to 70-degrees. Right now, I have a couple of those oil-filled radiator types that we use. They're pretty good, but take a few minutes to come up to temperature. In addition, theres no fan to circulate the heated air.

 

What can you recommend?

http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-755320-Ceramic-Digital-Display/dp/B000TTV2QS/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1325107386&sr=1-2

DeLonghi heater also sold at brookstone.

We have two and used them for the pasted 2 years with no problems

I'm sure if you shop around you can find it cheaper.

 

http://www.ebay.com/...=item48422ee3b9

I used a Pelonis for years down south.... see they dont insulate the old southern houses at all. Batten and plaster interior walls, lifted floors, pine and oak with 10 ft windows.... cold and drafty in an old plantation house. Heat was usually wood or natural gas space heaters in living rooms.

 

I put one of these in my bedroom and it worked great for years. Newer models might be even better.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11967653

I heat my house almost entirely with firewood (72,000 BTU fireplace insert). The kitchen needs help. Over the years, I've tried various heaters, some ceramics, some not. The radiator type heater works best. I currently have one that has a built in timer. You flip the switches up or down to turn it on or off on a 24 hour cycle. There are 4 switches per hour so you can tailor it to your schedule.

 

Now, that said, while you wait on it to come up to temperature, you should get yourself a Mr Heater. http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=42&id=455

 

We keep one in the living room for when the fire is low or we come home and the fire is out. I've been using one of these in the house for nearly 20 years.

 

Now, it says "outdoor only". I used a sensitive CO monitor and at 12 inches, it produces exactly zero PPM(the reading was in Parts per billion) Carbon Monoxide but always use a CO detector. Never leave it unattended but for instant heat and bumping up a room for 30 minutes, it works great.

What type of heating system do you have? Can you balance it somehow?

 

Just realize this:

 

an electric 1500 watt heater consumes 1.5kw per hour at approx $0.15/hr

 

if you convert that same 1.5kw to btus, it's 5122.5 btus. Currently, it's about $0.90 per therm for natural gas, a therm is 100,000 btus. The equivalent cost in natural gas is 5.7 cents (taking into account an efficiency loss of 80% in combustion). Therefore, the electric heater is 3x more expensive to use than natural gas. You really need to ask yourself if it makes sense for you.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I really appreciate it. djg0770, my house is heated by oil. There is no source that's more expensive than oil right now .

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I really appreciate it. djg0770, my house is heated by oil. There is no source that's more expensive than oil right now .

 

Actually, a gallon of oil contains approx 140,000 btus. At $3.25 a gallon that's 14.86 cents for the same use listed above - so it's almost equal to electric. And yeah - that's a holy crap from me!

 

Go with an electric heater then, at least it's room specific.

You're assuming you can find home heating oil for $3.25 per gallon .