Best Room Heater in India

 

Several models of room heaters are available in Indian market. To choose the right one according to your requirements, consider below factors…

Heating Technology: Two different technologies are observed in room heaters – radiant and convection. If you want to warm up a room or small space, then convection is a good choice. However, for large spaces and spot heating, radiant heating technology is helpful. Infrared room heaters use radiant technology. While fan and oil-filled heaters use convection technology.

Size: As a thumb rule, remember that a room heater utilizes 10W for heating 1 square foot of space. So, for heating up 150 sq.ft, a room heater uses 1500 Watts. If you want to custom calculate as per your requirements, below is the formula.

Formula for Calculating Required Wattage According to Square Foot Space

Total Wattage/10 = Total Square Foot Area (or)

Total Square Foot Area X 10 = Total Wattage

How to Choose a Room Heater?

It is not easy to choose a single product among hundreds of options present in the market. To simplify this process, we have provided several factors to consider while purchasing a room heater. This buying guide will help you choose the right one according to your unique requirements.

1. Heating Technology

This is the first important factor to consider before buying a room heater. There are two different types of heating technologies – convection heater and radiant heater. For more detail information, read below…

a. Convection Heater

This type of heating technology distributes warm air evenly and consistently throughout the room. They use air as the medium to increase warmth in the area. Generally, air is warmed up by blowing over a heating element which will be circulated through the room.

Usually, the heating elements can be made up of ceramic, electric-element or liquid filled. Convection heaters are perfect for closed spaces. They are preferred method of raising room temperature for extended period of time.

Convection heaters come in two different functionalities – with fan and without fan.

• Convection heaters with fan – As the name implies, they use fan as a medium to circulate air in the room. Fan present in this heater is responsible for taking the cool air, passing it over the heating element and re-circulating it into the room. They can increase warmth inside in well-insulated space much faster than convection heater without fan. However, due to the presence of fan, these devices make much noise.
• Convection heater without fan – Usually heating element in this type of heater is surrounded with oil or water. And the heating process will start a very slow pace. The heating process starts by heating the oil or water first and then later heat is slowly transferred into the surrounding air. But the heat generated can stay for long time as the liquid will stay hot for some time after switching off the device. As it doesn’t have a fan, the process is whisper silent.

b. Radiant Heaters

In this type of heaters, heat is generated from infrared radiation. Unlike convection heaters (where air in the room is heated up), this device warm up people and objects in the room.

Radiant heaters are perfect for…

• People can stay in line of its direction.
• Rooms where people stay still for long time (like bedrooms).
• Where people will stay only for few hours at a time.

As these heaters don’t warm up entire room, only people and objects near to it can reap the warmth benefits. It is beneficial for people with respiratory issues like dust allergies as it doesn’t depend on air circulation. As it is not dependable on wind, it is perfect for outdoors.

2. Room Heater Types

Based on their heating abilities, room heaters are further divided into the 3 types – ceramic, oil-filled and infrared. We have provided detail information below – read it carefully to understand which one suits your best.

• Ceramic Heaters

In ceramic heaters, electric current passes through ceramic heating elements. This lets the aluminum baffle and heating elements to quickly heat up. Meanwhile during the same time, the cool air is sucked into the base from the surrounding. After that, the air will be passed over the baffles and heating elements. This heats up the air and ultimately circulated into the room using a fan. That is why, they are often referred as ceramic fan heaters.

Room Heater Size and Coverage

This is considered as one of the most important factors because – if you purchase wrong size, then you will end with overheated or less heated space. For example, if you purchase a large room heater for small room, then energy will get wasted and the room will be overheated. Just vice-versa, if you purchase a small room heater for large room, then enough heat will not be produced to warm up the room.

Appropriate room heater capability can be measure with wattage output. As a thumb rule, room heater that consumes 10Watts power will heat one square foot of area perfectly. So, if the room heater consumes 1500Watts, then you can heat up 150sqft.

So, if you want to custom calculate for your area, follow the below formula.

General Rule for Calculating Wattage and Heating Capacity in Sqft

As already mentioned, 10 watts of power lets to heat up 1sqft.

So, Total Wattage/10 = Total Sqft.

(OR)

Total Sqft X 10 – Total Wattage.

• Infrared Heaters – As they don’t use air as the medium to heat up the objects or people, these room heaters have the potential to heat up large area with less power consumption.
• Ceiling over 8 Feet – If the ceiling of your room is more than 8 feet, then use the below formula
  Total Sqft X Ceiling Height X 1.25 = Total Wattage Required
• Poor Insulation – If you room is not properly insulated, then use the equation mentioned below.
  Total Wattage / 12 = Total Sqft (OR) Total Sqft X 12 = Total Wattage

4. Safety Features

Just like any other electrical device, it is better to purchase a room heater that comes with at least few safety features. We have mentioned some of them below…

• Cool to Touch

As the name suggests, it specifies that the outer casing of the room heater is heat resistant. So, even if you touch it accidently, it won’t cause any burns. This feature is not available in some of the room heater products in India. This feature is very important, especially if you have kids or pets in the home.

• Tip Over Cut off Switch

Due to their compact size and light weight features, portable room heaters are often moved from one place to another – this sometimes makes it likely to fall or tip over, especially when it bumps with any object. In some situations, kids or pets may try to catch the room heater or even try to move it. In the cases of falling over or sudden power cut off, the room heater will turn off itself immediately to avoid any potential risk of fire hazards.

• Overheat Protection Switch

Overheat protection is another important safety feature to consider. This is available in most of the room heaters present in Indian market. When internal components reach unsafe temperature, the sensors will notify the switch to turn off immediately.

Apart from these three features, also consider others like protective grills to cover heating coils and thermostats. Some modern room heater models come with motion sensors which detect and turn of the heater when a kid or pet comes too close.

5. Heat Settings

Most of the room heaters come with heat settings which help to adjust according to room temperature. Generally, 3 heat settings are observed – low, medium and high which work by altering the wattage. You can also turn off heat setting option by switching a button, if it is not suitable for your requirements.

6. Oxygen and Humidity Levels

This is an important factor to consider if you have new born baby at home. Generally, radiation heaters or fans use oxygen while heating up the air, leading to less oxygen levels and humidity loss in the room. This can lead to nausea, dry nose and itchy skin, especially in younger ones. To prevent this, we recommend to place a water bucket in any corner of the room when you are using room heater.

7. Power Consumption

If you want to find out how much electricity does your room heater consume, then first thing to consider is the wattage. This number is usually printed on the manual or specifications on the package. Most of the room heaters consume 1500 Watts but some of them may consume slightly more or less than it. So, based on this number, lets calculate the amount of electricity.

Electricity bills are usually calculated in Kilowatt hours which is the amount of energy consumed while running 1 kilo watt appliance for one hour.

First let’s assume, room heater you’ve got consumes 1500 watts. As 1,000 is equal to 1 Kilo watt, your heater consumes 1.5 Kilowatts of power. If you have been running room heater in your living room for 8 hours then calculation will be as follows…

• 1500 (Watts) x 8 hours = 12,000
• Now let’s divide it by 1,000 -> 12,000/1,000 = 12 (Kilowatts)
• Let’s multiply with electricity rate per unit. Average unit rate in our country is Rs.5.
  So, 12units X Rs.5 = Rs.60 per day.
• If you use 1500 Watts room heater daily for 8hours for a month, then you will get Rs.1800 electricity bill per month.

8. Power Cord

It is better to invest in a room heater that has at least 70 inches long power cord. This provides enough flexibility for power placement options. It also lets you keep it away from flammable things like beds, couch, curtains and others. Room heater without extension cord should be purchased. Heaters should be placed only on the floor for safety purposes.

Having a lengthy cord lets you use the room heater even in areas where outlets are not easily accessible. It also lets you move the heater around the room according to your preferences.

Important Note: You should never use an extension cord with space heater.

9. Noise Level

Just like any other electrical appliance, room heaters also produce some noise while in operation.Basic thumb rule when considering noise factor is – fan equipped room heaters produce noise and fan-less models produce less or no noise. Non-fan heaters (radiant or oil filled heaters ) usually operate whisper silent. So, they are perfect for bedrooms and office.

To check whether the product you choose produces noise or not, check out the decibel ratings. The higher the rating is, the louder the machine will be.

10. Thermostat

Thermostat is one of the important factors to consider while buying a room heater. Most of the room heaters have either adjustable thermostat or programmable thermostat. With the programmable thermostat you can set a desired temperature and the heater will automatically maintain the set temperature by turning the device on and off after particular intervals.

Though adjustable thermostat cannot maintain set temperature but still controls the heat output depending on your heat settings. Adjustable thermostats either have buttons or dials to let you adjust the heat setting from low to high.

11. Size and Portability

When it comes to portability, it is better to purchase a room heater with castor wheels. Because they make it easy to move the device form one place to another without any stress on the arms. It is also recommended to look out for side arms or handles, so that you can move the heater around without burning your hands.

Along with that, room heaters should be in light in weight to move it around easily and compact in size so that it can be move anywhere like under the table. Fan and radiant room heaters are light in weight, compact and easy to move around freely compared to oil-filled heaters.

12. Energy Efficiency

Room heaters cannot handle the amount of job a central heating system can do. They are designed to warm up small spaces. If you heat up large areas beyond the capacity of a room heaters, then you will have increased electricity bills.

Unfortunately, room heaters don’t come with energy efficiency ratings. And it is difficult to compare the energy efficiency of these devices as multiple factors can have an impact on their productivity. Some of these factors are indoor temperature, space size, whether the space is insulated or not, what temperature is set and others.

But, if you want to improve the energy efficiency of a room heater, then follow these simple tips…

• To minimize drafts and maximize heat retention, we recommend to keep the windows and doors closed while using room heaters.
• If the room heater has vents, then clear the accumulated debris and dust.
• To stay comfortable, it is better to maintain the temperature at lowest level instead of highest temperature at all the time.
• Positioning the heater to the right direction lets the heat reach the target area perfectly. This will stop you from turning the device to its highest level, thus prevents any energy wastage.
• Also check out for some features like timer, adjustable thermostat and low wattage power for reducing energy consumption.

13. Price and Warranty

A high quality room heater will obviously come at higher price. High end models will have extra smart features like remote control, energy saving mode and timer. Some affordable priced room heater models may not provide great smart features but they will surely provide enough warm that is required to make you comfortable.

When it comes to warranty, it is better to choose models with at least 6 months or 1-year warranty. You can check out the warranty details in the product specifications.

Best Room Heater in India

1. Oil-filled Radiator

2. Orpat OEH-1260 2000-Watt Fan Heater

3. Bajaj Flashy 1000 Watts Radiant Room Heater

4. Havells ofr – 11fin 2900-watt ptc fan heater