Indoor Gas Space Heaters
Despite my great love for outdoor heaters, I realize that most people are looking to warm themselves up when they’re already back inside. Space heaters are great when you only need to warm up a relatively small space (a room or part of a room). You can save good money your central heating bills by lowering your thermostat only a little bit and putting on a sweater, but you can often save even more by lowering the thermostat even more and using a space heater heat the room you are in. This is especially true when you have an expensive heating method in your home (I’m thinking electric baseboards here).
One great thing about small space heaters is that you can easily choose the size, type, and fuel source that is best for you. If you only want to heat a very small area for relatively short amounts of time a small electric space heater might be the way to go. Similarly if you need to move the heater around a lot, electric might work. But if you want to provide heat for more than one person at a time and for longer periods (for example a few people sitting no a couch watching a movie) you should seriously consider getting a propane space heater. For one, they are cheaper to operate for a larger heating job and I think you get more bang for your buck in terms of initial cost of the heater.
For even larger jobs, like heating a whole room a larger gas space heater really is the only way to go. You have lots of options regarding depending on your needs here. Propane heaters can be had for under $200 that will heat a 600 square ft. space. For heaters that size you wil often also want one with an electric blower (part of the heater) so the heat generated can be moved around the for a more even heating job.
Another really nice option for space heaters is to install a more permanent one in an old unused fireplace (even one that has been blocked off from use for a wood fire). If your home already has natural gas plumbing, consider instaling one in your unused fireplace for heating that can simulate the romance and coziness of a wood fire but with out the cost, environmental impact, and mess of a real wood fire.
The Glory of Outdoor Gas Heaters
I’m going to talk right away about outdoor gas heaters because frankly they are my favorite. There is nothing like sitting out on your patio in the evening and, just as the breeze starts to kick up and the temperature begins to drop, not having to move indoors but instead firing up your outdoor heater and letting its warmth envelope you. To me, it is the pincale of modern technology. Ok, that might be a bit of hyperbole there, but the point remains: I adore my outdoor heater. I call it ‘The Sun’ which really isn’t too far from the truth since it works on the same principle, though at a somewhat smaller scale. First a bit about how they work. Heaters generally work by either convection or radiation. Any sort of heat that relies upon heating the air up and then blowing that air over whatever you want to be warm is called convection heating. Lots of indoor central heating systems work on this principle. Radiant heat, on the other hand, heats objects directly and doesn’t require any air to move between the heat source and the heated object. They rely upon infrared light to transfer the energy that does the heating. Remember how I said that these heaters work on the same principle as the sun? Well as you may have heard, there is no air up there in outer space so in order for the sun to warm the earth it needs to do it through radiation. Radiant heaters are ideal for outdoor applications because of the wind. If they relied upon heating the air to warm things and people, even a slight breeze could blow all of the heat away before it was ever felt. No matter how windy it is out, though, you can feel the heat from a radiant heater quite well when you are near it (though of course a strong wind will in its own right cause you to be colder). Patio gas heaters can run on either propane or natural gas and come in a variety of sizes and installation options (ultra portable to permanent installation). We’ll talk more about them in a later post!