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It’s always best to ask for help in deciding what model has the specs right for you. Sometimes you might find that the specs aren’t good enough for what you are after. Conversely, you may also find that you don’t need extra bells and whistles, so could save a pretty penny by switching to a lower model. Do your research Some brands are synonymous with quality. If quality is your focus, avoid budget brands that don’t specialise in good products. The more deluxe ranges offered by household brands are usually a reliable place to put your money, but results can vary from model to model. It doesn’t matter if it’s a microwave or measuring scales, researching the right electronic device for your needs will save you a lot of headache down the line. These can still be bought, but they aren't as popular or widely available as fan or convector heaters. Some portable heaters have useful extras, such as an LCD screen that displays the current temperature or a remote control for turning the heater on from across the room. These features may come in handy:
Under current energy prices, the electric heaters we've tested can cost anything from 9p to 87p per hour to run on full blast.They tend to be cheap to run, but some can be really slow to heat up. Most oil-filled heaters are also fairly heavy and cumbersome, so look out for models that come with wheels.
But that doesn’t mean you need to jump to the higher end of the price range, either. For most people, middling prices are the best way to go, as these products usually meld both quality and affordability. Some brands and specific models can make a splash with consumers. Because of this, other companies sometimes offer very similar products that might be quite a bit cheaper. Cold air setting Some fan heaters can help cool you down too. They're not nearly as effective as a dedicated air conditioner, but a light breeze of cold air is better than nothing.
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Frost protection The heater can be set to heat automatically when the temperature drops below 5°C, but you'll need to have it on standby for it to run, so this can limit its usefulness. The next process we put in place was to see how cheap you can get products in the Heating and cooling category and also just to see how expensive they can get too. Adjustable thermostat Using this function, a portable heater will heat the room and when the desired temperature is reached, it will try to maintain the room at that temperature. Most of the cheaper, simpler heaters we tested have a dial thermostat that doesn't let you choose specific temperatures in °C. You'll likely need to buy a more expensive model for that. Our tests also found that they're rarely 100% accurate and will probably think the room is a couple of °C warmer or cooler than it is. On the downside, this type can be quite noisy and they don't have some of the more advanced features you can get with convector heaters.
Convector heaters are usually taller than fan heaters, but thin and light – making them larger, but still relatively easy to move between rooms. Portable electric heaters use electricity, which costs 28.62p/kWh under the current energy price cap. Depending on how effective the heater is, they can take anything from 30 minutes to an hour to notably raise the temperature of a medium-sized room, so if you're only planning on using it until the room gets up to temperature, it will likely cost you between 28 and 57p. We set up each heater in the centre of our test room and run it on the maximum settings, with the room starting at a cool temperature. We monitor how much the room temperature changed over the course of an hour using temperature probes. We found the most drastic changes happen in the first half an hour and increases in temperature become more incremental after that. The oil in the radiator acts as a heat reservoir, which stays hot for some time after the heater's switched off. Some are called 'oil-free' and function in a comparable way, just with an internal heating element instead of any oil.
That did however bring up one issue…that Dimplex are known to make more products than just Heating and cooling. Pinning down an exact comparison of how much central heating and electric heaters cost to run is nigh-on impossible, as the factors below are just some of the variables that play a part:
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