Wall Mounted Electric Heaters
There are many different types of electric heaters that attach to the wall, also known as fan coil or fan heated heaters. Electric heaters that attach to the wall provide safe, instant, easy-to-control heat, and can be perfect for a variety of areas around the home. They are the simplest and easiest to install. They take the chill out of a room quickly. They are available in different features, styles, widths and heights, and watts. There are types that are mounted on the wall and others that are recessed. Recessed heaters are often more attractive. Wall mounted heaters should be mounted on an interior wall of the room, in an area that will not be blocked by furniture. There are ceiling mounted ceiling heaters that are used for garages and commercial buildings.
Most heaters have copper coils connected with copper tubing. These heaters are fan operated so they have operating noise. Some come with dust filters but these still tend to blow dust around. These heaters tend to be on the small size, but they have a powerful blower motor that will blow concentrated heat that spreads quickly through a room. They are controlled by a thermostat, and the air that is blown out is pulled in from the room. Most have overheating protection and some have Frost Guard. Most have motors that are permanently lubricated and the motors are sealed tight, so they are maintenance free. The fan on some of them will not turn on until the coils are heated up, and will not turn off until the coils begin to cool off. Some can be plugged in and others need to be hard wired. Depending on the cover, you may be able to adjust the air flow.
The most common place a wall mounted electric heater is used is the bathroom. When mornings have a chill and you don’t need to heat the whole house with your energy eating central heating furnace, a bathroom heater will take that chill off while you shower and dress. . If you have a room that is colder than others, or doesn’t have heat at all it’s a good fit. Put one in a vestibule or entry way that gets a lot of traffic. That mud room next to the garage is a good spot as well.
How do you know which size heater to get for the room you are using? The rule of thumb is 10 watts for each square foot in the average room. If you have a room that isn’t well insulated or has a lot of windows you might want to consider 15 watts per square foot. Likewise, if you are in a milder climate you might want to lower the wattage to 8 watts per square foot. If you go with more wattage, that’s ok, it won’t be less efficient to run. The heater will run less. For example, if your room in 10x10, you have 1.000 square feet to heat, so you would need 1.000 watts of power for your unit. If you are heating your bathroom and it is smaller than this, it is a good idea to go with the 1,000 watts anyway. The heaters with less than 1000 watts only produce lukewarm air, and most people like their bathrooms to be a little bit warmer. For residential use the heaters usually start at 500 watts and go up to 4,000 watts.
Thermostats on the heaters are not calibrated for degrees but are usually hot to cold. Set the knob all the way on hot. When the room is comfortable, turn the knob slowly back toward cold until the fan stops. If you keep it set in this position it will run to keep the room at that temperature.
Another type of wall mounted electric heater uses radiant heat. These do not have fans and have coils that heat up and give off heat in a concentrated area. These are best used if you are in a small room or are going to be in front of the heater, because they aren’t good for heating a large room.
A relatively new source of supplemental heating is a wall mounted electric fireplace. These are easy to install anywhere that an outlet is available. They are basically a space heater. The newer technology has gone a long way in making the fire more realistic. You can change the speed and color of the fire on many models. Newer models have fans that will heat the room more quickly. In the summer the heat option can be turned off and you can have the ambiance of a fire, without the heat. Some have remote controls, and some are thermostatically controlled and turn off when the room reaches a certain temperature.
Another option for wall mounted electric heat is an electric radiator. Electric radiators put out less than steam radiators but are more energy efficient. They do not use water, just electricity, and the heat is a radiant heat. It is easy to get burned when touching these, so they aren’t good to have when kids are around.
If you’ve used the propane heaters for patios, you know they can get expensive to run. Currently there are Wall mounted infrared patio heaters available that do the same job, for much less operating cost. These are fairly pricey so it's best to consider how often you will really use it. They have different brackets that are used to hang them just about any place on the patio. You'll want to know how many feet the heat radiates out from the heater, and that it will be enough for the size of your patio or deck.
And let’s not forget the ECO-heaters. These are an economic and green way of heating a room. They use convection heat that leads to an updraft to circulate the warm air to the room. It is safe and efficient, and only uses as much electricity as 4 100 watt light bulbs. They can even be painted to blend in with the wall. Find out more about these at http://www.eco-heater.com/productspec_safety.html
