Choosing a bathroom space heater,
decide which heater will help take thechill out of your bathroom.
A bathroom space heater maynot be at the top of everyone's list of priorities but this morning when I woke up I was sure glad I had one.
My bathroom like most is not the warmest place in my house and it is also one of the places that I wear the least amount of clothing (I know, I won't talk about being naked any more). So it's only natural that I would want to make this room a bit warmer than the rest of the house.
The perfect way to do this is with a bathroom space heater. These heaters come in a variety of sizes and shapes, colors and styles. The big question is, “which one is right for me?”. That is the goal of this page; to find out what there is and decide which to buy.
There are several types of space heaters that you could use in a bathroom setting. Most plug directly into a standard 110 volt outlet and require just a little bit of floor space to effectively heat the room. Some are mounted within the walls or ceiling and still others are hidden beneath the floor. The first type of heater we'll be talking about is a quartz heater.
Quartz heaters are one of the simplest ways to heat a bathroom. They're small economical and fairly safe. They work by the principle of radiant heat which means that they warm the objects in the room instead of the air. This quality makes these heaters more economical to run that other types of bathroom space heaters. Quartz radiant heaters are also usually small and portable so when you're not using it in the bathroom you could tote it into the next room to keep your feet warm while you watch the latest re-runs on cable.
The second type of
heater would be a permanently mounted ceiling or wall heater. These
usually come in the form of a heat lamp or “forced convection
heater”.
First the heat lamp.
A heat lamp is really just a very easily replaceable quartz infrared heater. A heat lamp works well as a bathroom heater because it gets the heat source out of the way to maximize safety. It can also be hardwired into the houses electrical system and set to run on a timer further increasing the safety and energy efficiency feature inherent to theses types of heaters.
“Forced convection heaters” work a little bit differently. These types of heaters rely on a fan to force the cool air to blow across an electric heating element. This type of bathroom space heater works well when you want to heat a space very quickly. It is a little less energy-efficient as it not only uses electricity and heating element but also the fan.
Like the heat lamp a forced convection heater can be hardwired into the homes electrical system and set on a timer. Also like the heat lamp this type of here is safer than the standard bathroom space heater because it takes the heating element and puts on the ceiling away from towels clothing and other flammable items.
The previous two types of bathroom heaters are fairly economical to install and can be installed in existing bathroom without very much of a problem. The final type of bathroom space heater radiant floor heating, requires a bit more forethought and installation effort.
While radiant floor heating requires a more difficult installation the rewards are greater as well imagine walking into your bathroom on a cold winter morning to find that the tile floor was a perfect 72°. This type of heating takes the efficiency of radiant heat the safety of installed heating system and combines them to make the perfect bathroom space heater.
Now back to that whole installation thing in floor radiant heat requires hardwiring into the homes electrical system, usually a dedicated circuit and electrical panel, completely new floor that is compatible with in floor radiant heat and usually a licensed installer to go with it.
If none of these things scare you away and in floor radiant heat is absolutely the way to go for a bathroom space heater. I hope that this brief outline of the different types of bathroom space heaters has helped to define the different types of heaters available for bathrooms and simplify your choices.
When shopping for these types of heaters pay attention to the wattage of the heater as compared to your bathroom's electrical circuit. Also look for a good manufacturers warranty take a look online especially places like Amazon.com where people review the different types of heaters available on the market. Use other people's experience as a baseline for making your final decision.
As always, if there is anything at all that I can do to help you as you work on your bathroom remodeling project please feel free to contact me. Also be sure to bookmark my pages and subscribe to my newsletter and my RMS feed to get the most recent updates to my website delivered right to your desktop.
Thanks for stopping by.
