Space Heaters. i need a good one and curious what you all are using

Hey guys/gals....what are you all using for space heaters?

I live in maryland and latley its been getting cold here sometimes down in the single didgets like last week. I been using a space heater in the past but eventually went up and the internal thermostat went bad (not keeping accurate tempature)

I no longer have a t room they are in my bed room...long story..lol but i keep the room at about 70-73# and been doing this for a few years..all t's are ok and doing well. My problem is the space heaters im worried about the obvious overheats, fires, bad temp units ect.

im in a 13x15 room with about 8ft cealings. so square footage is 1560. found this calculator to dictate how much btus are needed to heat a room http://www.calculator.net/btu-calculator.html

so curious what you all are doing..or you just replacing them as you need to.? I want to know what brands and if you are using them 24/7 or not and how long you had them.. thanks

sierra53 said:

im in a 13x15 room with about 8ft cealings. so square footage is 1560. found this calculator to dictate how much btus are needed to heat a room http://www.calculator.net/btu-calculator.html

Click to expand...

You mean cubic feet in the above, like that link!

Thanks for the btu calculator, very useful!

I am using about 150W of heating cables in a couple of closet, 24/7 during winter, but next winter my critters will outgrow the closets and I'll need to think a cheap way to heat a small room.

Best thing to use, i think, is a oil filled heater. I heat a 12'x14' room to 80 using it. I tried the junk space heaters, that were just electric fan forced, and they all were too dangerous.

I love conundrums like this.
First, let's start with the basics. How well insulated is the room? 5 trillion BTU might be sufficient if your walls are crenelated solid silver. 5 BTUs will be sufficient with R500 or above insulation, all surfaces, and a negligible K factor.

Then on to type. Forced convection, fan type, are the most efficient for rapid heating and maintaining temperature in a poorly insulated room. But they do get excessively hot and present a fire hazard if not placed properly or something flammable obstructs the intake or output areas. Oil filled or passive heaters are less efficient but usually present no fire hazard. The least efficient are the ones that primarily put out radiant heat, having an element that glows red. These are also the greatest fire hazard.

As for how large, how many BTUs, your call. All the ones worth considering have thermostats so you get one that is larger than the greatest amount of heat you expect to need and dial it down.

My suggestion is a 4000 watt+ fan forced convection unit, properly placed, dialed down to the heat you want. Right now along the eastern seaboard there's an awful lot of people virtually hugging those oil filled units trying to stay warm due to the fact their heat output is passive convection which is significantly slower. All approved home heaters have both a thermostat and an over temp cut off sensor.

A BTU calculator is worthless as it doesn't take insulation, heat loss of the space, into account.

PS Introducing several ferrets into the room along with some bright shiny things that roll around on the floor will significantly reduce your heater requirements.

Can a BTU calculator assist in the number of ferrets required, given floor space, to reduce the heater requirement to zero?


What's the average BTU of a ferret anyway?

edgeofthefreak said:

Can a BTU calculator assist in the number of ferrets required, given floor space, to reduce the heater requirement to zero?


What's the average BTU of a ferret anyway?

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My ferret calorie conversion calculator was powered by steam and quark farts. It was so uneconomical to run I got rid of it.

In the past this is also what I liked to use (Oil Filled Radiator Heater)

I still use one out in the garage for other gatherings

catfishrod69 said:

Best thing to use, i think, is a oil filled heater. I heat a 12'x14' room to 80 using it. I tried the junk space heaters, that were just electric fan forced, and they all were too dangerous.

Click to expand...

I use one similar to that. Works wonders.

fyic said:

In the past this is also what I liked to use (Oil Filled Radiator Heater)

I still use one out in the garage for other gatherings

Click to expand...

If you can handle some basic tools and have access to a decent table saw or even a skill saw, you might want to try building a cabinet to control temps. I have my T's in a two level cabinet, the shelves have 1" holes drilled in them to allow the warm air to rise, top level is my T's, bottom level contains a ceramic bulb (20 bucks or so) hooked up to a thermostat. Plexiglass and screen on the front of the cabinet for viewing / ventilation. In the long run it's a lot cheaper to just heat 6 cubic feet with what basically amounts to a light bulb.

Got some pics sw18x?

This was actually an old homemade cubby/bookshelf we had laying around, I just added a hinged door with locking clasp. I'll be making a bigger version in a few months to accommodate my 3 T's as they grow. The left side, top shelf is where I locate the temperature probe. The right side just gets residual heat but still stays warmer than the surrounding room. The thermostat came from Big Apple Herp Supply and was the biggest investment, but I'll bet that ceramic bulb outlasts most space heaters.

This is my setup, where I keep my ants colonies, a couple of slings, roaches, mealworms, drosophila: two (only one show in photo) closet 80x30x120 cm, in winter I use 3 heating cables with total 100W of power. In my home currently the temperature is 18°C and inside the closet I can get from 30°C -very near the heating cable- to 22°C -farther point from the heating cable-.

I'm running out of space, next winter I'll need another closet for the animals to grow.

Very informative sw18x. Thank you. You to asiletto.