Your climate, type of heater, how you use it and even its position in the room can make a big difference to your comfort and heating bills.
Types of Heaters
There are many different types of heating, with different sources of energy and levels of efficiency:
- Gas heaters and efficient reverse-cycle heat pumps are cheaper to run than standard electric heaters.
- Ducted-air central heating systems can use either gas or reverse-cycle heat pumps as the energy source.
- Hydronic central heating systems are usually gas-fired but may use a wood-fired heater, solar system or heat pump.
- If you choose an electric heater, electric fixed heaters (a type of reverse-cycle heat pump) are the most energy-efficient type.
- Heat shifters have a fan and ducting to direct warm air to unheated parts of your home. They can be cost-effective to install and low-cost to run.
- Wood is a renewable energy source if it is harvested sustainably. Use a low-emission heater, not an open fireplace. Before getting a wood heater, check with your council or local government to find out if smoke and particle emissions from wood heaters are a potential health concern in your area.
- Electric portable heaters can be cheap to buy but very expensive to run. Many are not as effective as other methods of heating.
- Electric in-slab floor heating often has the highest greenhouse gas emissions of any heating system and may be the most expensive to run.
(Source: LivingGreener Government website )
The Heating Calculator
So the first step is to prevent heat losses in winter as much as you can before investing in a new heater – see This Months Top Tips for ways to do this.
Then, before purchasing a heater, use this Heating Caculator to helps you to estimate the heat losses of the room(s) you want to heat, and the capacity your heater needs to have to replace those losses.
