Bathroom Heaters

The ideal bathroom heater is going to do several things. Even, consistent heating throughout the whole room would be nice, as you don’t want one side of the room to be much warmer or cooler than the other side. An automatic thermostat would also be nice to help keep the bathroom at a comfortable temperature. Also, since there are likely to be clothes and towels strewn around the room, you don’t want a heater that poses any sort of fire hazard (not to mention the potential for burning exposed, um, body parts). And lastly, efficiency and convenience are never a bad thing when it comes to choosing a heater.

These criteria all point towards one particular type of heater that would make the ideal bathroom heater: an electric convection heater. Convection heaters do all of the things listed above: they provide consistent heat throughout all the corners of the room, they almost always come equipped with an automatic thermostat, they are designed to be cool (or at worst, warm) to the touch even when in use, and they are both efficient and convenient to use. The benefits of using electric bathroom heaters is pretty obvious too – you don’t have to worry about getting a gas or propane hookup in your bathroom, and you can just use the plugs that are already in there.

The type of heater that I’ve described here is most likely going to be a small, portable heater, which adds to its usefulness and convenience. You could use it to heat your bedroom at night and then use to heat your bathroom during the day. The only disadvantage to convection heaters is that they can take a while to heat a room, due to the way in which they work. One way to get around this problem is to use a fan heater, which is a type of convection heater that uses a fan to speed up the heating process. An electric bathroom fan heater will most likely solve all of your bathroom heating needs.

Bathroom Wall Heaters

Another option for bathroom heating, if you don’t want to use a portable heater, is to get a wall heater permanently installed in your bathroom. In this situation, since the bathroom wall heater will be in a permanent spot and will be positioned well above the floor, a radiant heater might work just as well as a convection heater. The big advantage to radiant heaters is that they heat a room much more quickly than convection heaters do, so you could turn it on when you step into the shower, and the room would feel nicely warm by the time you got out. The two main disadvantages to radiant heaters are that they don’t heat a room evenly – you’re going to feel much more heat closer to the heater than further away – and the heating elements of radiant heaters are usually exposed to give off more heat. If you were to bump into or accidentally touch a radiant heater, you could get burned.

If you don’t like the sound of all of that, you can get convection bathroom wall heaters as well. These will work in just the same way as portable convection heaters, but will be permanently mounted on your wall.

Also, if you have access to a convenient gas or propane supply, and prefer to use one of them for your heating, you can get either of these wall heaters in that variety. You may need to get a professional to install it, but a gas or propane bathroom heater would work just fine.

Bathroom Heater Light

One question that I’m often asked is some variation of “What’s that heater light I saw in the bathroom of my hotel?” That light is a specific type of electric radiant heater and is very similar to a heat lamp used for keeping food warm. The ceiling is a great place for putting radiant bathroom heaters, as they are in a good position to heat the room, and it’s hard to get close enough to burn yourself. If you want a heater light in your bathroom at home you’ll need to get a professional to install it, but they can be used in home bathrooms just like in a hotel.

Wall Heaters

Wall heaters come in a number of different styles, sizes, shapes and colors, but there are a few things that are common to just about all of them. First off, wall heaters are actually installed in the wall, or at least mounted on it. This is great for smaller rooms with out a lot of room to spare, and gives you an effective heat source that doesn’t take up any walking or living room. Wall heaters are also great options for rooms that you don’t want to have a large floor heater taking up space in. If a big heater sitting on the floor would detract from the look or decoration of the room, a wall heater would make a great choice.

Another advantage to wall heaters is that they are a type of zonal heating. Zonal heating, as opposed to central heating, is when you have heaters in different rooms in your house that are not controlled by a central thermostat. This allows you to heat the rooms that you are using, and not heat the rooms that don’t need to be heated. This is great if you have a guest wing in your house, or several rooms that don’t get lived in very often. You don’t need to heat them right now, and zonal heating allows you to only heat the rooms that you are currently using.

Types of Wall Heaters

There are a couple of different types of wall heaters, with electric wall heaters being the most common. Choosing an electric wall heater gives you the convenience of using electricity, and let you install a heater just about anywhere in your house. The only potential drawback to using electric wall heaters is that they won’t be able to operate if your power gets knocked out. If you live in an area that gets a lot of winter storms, then that would be a concern. You definitely don’t want to have both your power and your heating go out in the middle of a blizzard.

If you want an alternative to an electric wall heater, both a gas wall heater and a propane wall heater would fit the bill. Natural gas heaters run on methane, and propane heaters obviously run on propane, which is derived from petroleum. Both of these heaters give you greater reliability than electric heaters, as they will continue to work even if the power goes out, but finding a reliable gas or propane supply is less convenient than simply plugging an electric heater into the wall.

How Wall Heaters Work

Nearly all wall heaters are going to be simple convection heaters. Convection heaters work by using the thermal properties of air to warm a room. The power source is applied to a heating element (either by passing an electrical current through it, or burning gas or propane on it) which then gives off heat into the surrounding air. The air begins to circulate around the room as it becomes heated, and cooler air is pulled down to the heater. That cool air is heated and begins to circulate, and the cycle continues.

Convection heaters are great at thoroughly heating every corner of the room, and in many cases, a thermostat will cycle them on and off automatically to keep the room at a constant temperature.

What To Look For In A Wall Heater

The biggest thing to consider when purchasing a wall heater is whether you want it to run on electricity or gas/propane. The convenience of electricity is a powerful draw for many people, but don’t discount the added reliability of propane and gas heaters that we discussed above. If you live in an area that is prone to winter storms, you should at least have a gas or propane powered backup heating option.

Other things to consider are the looks of the heater, the size, ease of installation, and, of course, the price. You definitely want to get a heater that matches the look of your home; you don’t want a garish, ugly thing staring back at you even if it does keep you warm. As far as ease of installation goes, heaters that actually have to be installed in the wall will more difficult to install than a simple wall mounted heater, which is just attached to the wall with brackets. On the other hand, “in wall” heaters will look better and leave less of the heater hanging out into the room. The heater to the right is an example of a wall mounted propane heater. That whole thing gets hung on the wall with brackets, and does not recess into the wall at all.

Lastly, price is always going to be a consideration. You can buy a decent wall heater for as little as $100, but it’s not going to be incredibly efficient or powerful. Top of the line models can run you as much as $250, but I usually recommend looking in the $150 to $200 range. This will get you a solid heater at a decent price.

Baseboard Heaters

Baseboard heaters are characterized by their long, short and wide shape. They are designed to lay on the floor against the baseboards in a room. They lay along the wall and only protrude into the room by a couple of inches, making them ideal for smaller rooms without much walking space to spare. They can also be used in bigger rooms where a larger heater would spoil the decor. Their small size and shape allows them to appear hidden and barely noticeable, although they actually remain in plain sight.

These heaters are usually run by means of a baseboard heater thermostat which is either installed on the wall in the same room as the heater or attached directly to the heater. Wall thermostats are more accurate and more convenient, but they are troublesome to install, especially if the walls in your home have already been finished. If you are currently building a home and the walls are not up yet, then that is a great time to install a wall thermostat. Otherwise you’ll end up having to cut into the walls themselves to hide the wiring.

A lot of people often want to know if they can install one thermostat to control all of the baseboard heaters in their house. The answer is that, yes, you could, but that would defeat the purpose of having zonal heating. Zonal heating allows you to only heat the rooms and areas of the house that you are currently using, and having one central thermostat for all of your baseboard heaters would mean that they all operate together, even when some of them are not needed.

Types of Baseboard Heaters

In terms of different types of baseboard heaters, electric baseboard heaters are by far the most popular. They’re the easiest to install, are very efficient, and have the convenience of running off of electricity. Another option is a gas baseboard heater, which runs off of natural gas or propane, but these are not as popular these days. However, if you are concerned with being able to keep your home warm when the power goes out due to a storm or inclement weather, then a gas powered baseboard heater would be a good option to look into.

Another type of baseboard heaters are called hot water baseboard heaters, or hydronic baseboard heaters. These heaters have pipes that run hot water through the heater, which has aluminum fins that surround the pipe, as you can see in the picture. The fins help diffuse the heat from the water which is then forced out into the room by means of a fan. This specific type of heater is not as efficient as electric baseboard heaters, and is not often found in newer homes. If you buy or renovate a classic home you might run into them, but otherwise you’ll probably never have to deal with a hydronic baseboard heater.

How Baseboard Heaters Work

Baseboard heaters are simply a unique type of convection heaters. Convection heaters use the thermal properties of the air to deliver heat to all the corners of a room, and baseboard heaters work in just the same manner. An electric current is passed through a heating element, generally a metal bar or plate of some sort, which begins to heat up in response to the electricity. The heat that is given off is absorbed by the air which then begins to circulate around the room as it warms up. As the warm air leaves the vicinity of the heater, cooler air is pulled closer to the heater. The cool air is then warmed, and circulates around the room on its own. This cycle repeats for as long as the heater is turned on.

The advantages of using convection heaters or baseboard heaters as opposed to another type of heater are that convection heaters thoroughly warm the entire room and the heat they give off lingers for some time even after the heater is turned off. This allows the heater to cycle on and off to maintain a constant temperature in the room, thereby increasing the efficiency as the heater does not have to run constantly.

The main disadvantage to using a convection heater is that they can take a long time to make a noticeable difference in the temperature of a room. Since they heat the air, and hot air rises, the heat given off by convection heaters goes to the highest parts of the room first. Only after that does the heat begin to trickle down to the lower parts of the room. This is really only noticeable though when the heater has been turned off for a good length of time. Using a thermostat to control the heater means the temperature will stay constant.

Buying and Installing a Baseboard Heater

The first and most important thing to investigate when you’re going to buy a baseboard heater is to make sure that you’re buying a heater with the right voltage for your house. The heater is going to have one of three voltage options: 120 volt, 208 volt and 240 volt. Getting a heater with the wrong voltage setting for your house can mean that your heater will not deliver the proper amount of heat, or it can mean that the heater will draw too much power through the power line, and potentially cause a short or start an electrical fire.

The next things to decide is how many watts you need your heater to produce in order to heat your room effectively, and exactly where you want them installed. If you have questions about voltage or wattage and are unsure how to proceed, it’s recommended that you talk to a professional. You don’t want to mess around with that sort of thing unless you know what you’re doing.

Installing a baseboard heater is not that difficult if you have a bit of experience with heating. The steps are 1) prepare the baseboard for the heater, 2) mount the heater on the baseboard, and 3) complete the wiring to the heater. However, if you are uncomfortable handling the electrical work, or want to install a wall thermostat on an existing wall, you probably want to get a professional handle it for you.