Here's another way to save energy this winter: try using a portable space heater to heat just the room you're in, and turn down the thermostat in the other rooms of your house. The New York Times recently tested 10 portable space heaters. Here are the Top 5:
Shown above the jump, from left to right:
Holmes Ultra Quiet Ceramic Heater ($82.99): At 15-inches high, this model from Holmes produced the hottest air and took only about 20 minutes to warm up the room by 10 degrees. Set it to either high or low, or to a specific temperature between 60 and 80 degrees, in increments of 5 degrees.
Honeywell HZ-7200 Energy Smart Heater ($39.99): The lightweight 13-inch-tall unit from Honeywell ranked high as a personal heater for sitting by your desk or relaxing in a chair. It was lightweight, cool to the touch, and had an oscillating feature— great for distributing heat around the room. It took about an hour to raise the room temperature significantly, but aimed directly at you it performs wonderfully.
Vornado TVH 600 ($199.99): 12 1/4 inches high, the Vornado only about 35 minutes to raise the room temperature by 10 degrees, although the air coming out didn't feel that warm. It boasts a wide temperature range of 40 to 90 degrees, and functioned well as a personal heater. It also has a tip-over protection feature that turns the machine off immediately if it's knocked over.
Lasko Remote-Control Silent Room Heater ($39.98): this unit looks and functions like an electric baseboard with its low profile and basic controls. The fastest of the models tested took just 15 minutes to warm the room by 10 degrees. The exterior surface became very warm, but there are cool-touch handles if you need to move it.
De'Longhi Safeheat Mica Panel Radiator ($89.95): The flat and rectangular De'Longhi was the most similar in look and feel to a radiator. It can be wall-mounted, or rolled around on casters, but as it gets very hot to the touch, the wall-mount option is recommended. It has 12 settings and took about 25 minutes to raise the room temperature 10 degrees.
See the full article at The New York Times.
(Images: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)
© 2010 Apartment Therapy
I have crappy baseboard heaters in my house, and do exactly what you suggested. I close all the other bedroom/bathroom doors, and heat just the room I'm occupying, with a supplemental space heater. Although sometimes I wonder if the space heater uses more energy than just the baseboards do...
view GretaGrace's profile
The list doesn't mention whether power usage was a factor. This is one of the biggest factors with space heaters, I believe.
view xsimpletunx's profile
I have an oil-filled radiator type of space heater, and it's been fantastic. Builds heat, holds heat, doesn't dry up the air, and doesn't cost a fortune to run. Love. Mine is a de Longhi brand, I believe.
view Jezebella's profile
I second the oil-filled radiator option. Other advantage: it's silent.
view sloutre's profile
I like infrared heaters, particularly carbon fiber ones. They were really popular in Japan. They heat up you, rather than the room though. But they don't use a lot of electricity and they are silent.
view Violet Veil's profile
I have the last one listed, the DeLonghi mica panel, but I never use it because I checked it against my heating pad with a Kill-A-Watt and the heating pad uses less juice. I heat only the rooms I use most often, and keep those at 60 degrees. I always sit in the same spot on the couch, so I keep a heating pad there, to have against my back, a down blanket for my lap, and I'm warmer than I was with the heater. (Sort of taking the heat-only-what-you-need up a notch, from heating just the room to heating just your person.) If I'm going to be seated elsewhere for a decent length of time, I take the pad and use a fleece throw. If I'm up and around, the motion keeps me plenty warm and I wind up pushing up my sleeves. I almost want to pass my heater along to someone else, because I don't see myself going back to it from the heating pad/down combo, and it's just gathering dust.
view shanalulu's profile
It is the best!! I've had mine for the second year now, it's still goin' strong and heats incredibly well. Love it, love it!!
view Completely Coastal's profile
We have the oil-filled too - and it's all we need for our entire 2-story loft. We were having an issue with the downstairs being too cold and the upstairs turning into a sauna - so now the space heater takes care of downstairs and enough heat rises to make the upstairs comfortable. So much happier.
view mysoultokeep's profile