From ceramic fan heaters to economical storage heaters, we tested the best ways to warm small rooms, large rooms and conservatories in 2024
When the price of gas soars, a portable electric heater (sometimes known as a space heater) is worth considering. Used properly, with judicious use of the thermostat, they can be economical – particularly for heating bedrooms and for occasional use in the coldest parts of the house. “When gas prices are unaffordable they may help cut bills if used sparingly,” says Rob Bennett, technical service manager at Pimlico Plumbers. “But electricity is not exactly cheap at the moment either. So you’re looking for the most heating output from the lowest electricity usage.” detachment column
In the home, you might consider using an electric heater if only requiring short, targeted warmth but Bennett warns that these devices are “not so great for a constant heating source in a large area where heat disperses quickly,” because they struggle to fill the space. So which is the one to buy? Read on for the reviews in full, including running costs, sizing, safety measures, timer and control heating settings. If you’re pressed for time, here’s a quick look at our top five:
All portable heaters cost more to run than gas central heating. As Vicky Dunn, energy manager at Smart Energy Greater Lincolnshire, explains: “The cheapest heating is the one you don’t use. Make sure heaters are only on when required, and set as low as comfortable. Stop draughts so warm air isn’t lost.”
Electric heaters may be essential if you live in one of the four million or so households in the UK that don’t use mains gas heating and are a good solution if you’re just looking to heat one room, or only need to heat in short, sharp bursts.
Your heater’s power will be measured in kilowatts (kW). For most small- and medium-sized rooms, a 2kW device will suffice. All of the heaters in our review are 2kW or under. Running costs are usually calculated by the hour (kWh).
Portable electric heaters are proving exceptionally popular this year. We have chosen heaters from well-known retailers with large stocks, but our top picks may temporarily sell out. We will suggest good alternatives until stocks are replenished. The same goes for our reviews of the best dehumidifiers and the best heated clothes airers, the latter being extremely popular this year as a way of cutting energy bills.
I used an electronic temperature gauge and timer to see how long it took each heater to warm a room by five degrees. I took my readings from 10 feet away to make sure the warmth spread. The performance of any electric heater will depend hugely on room size and insulation, so I tried them all in both small, well-insulated rooms and larger, draughtier rooms. I also took into account weight, portability, ease of use and how good they looked.
£149.99, VonHaus (This is currently sold out due to high demand, instead we recommend this similar heater by Electriq)
We like: powerful ability to warm a whole medium-sized room, as long as the room is well insulated
We don’t like: it’s not the best-looking
If you’re sitting a few feet away from this not particularly handsome oil-filled radiator, initially it’s underwhelming. The oil takes a while to warm up, plinking and plonking as it goes, and the heat that slowly emerges from the top in a “chimney” effect goes up, not out. Over time, as cool air is drawn in from beneath due to convection, the whole room heats up, but in my test it took half an hour for the temperature monitor set ten feet away to register any rise at all.
Over time, however, it’s a different matter. I left the VonHaus to do its thing and returned to the medium-sized room an hour later to find it uniformly toasty and comfortable. At 2kW it uses a lot of energy to do that. The key to keeping running costs low is judicious use of the thermostat. As soon as the room is at the right temperature, turn the dial down until you hear the radiator click off. It will then only click on again to maintain that temperature — which was very seldom with the VonHaus.
Apart from the thermostat the only controls here are a three-step power dial and an old-fashioned 24-hour timer divided into 15-minute segments that you pull out for ‘on’ and push in for ‘off’.
It’s heavier than most and there are cheaper oil-filled radiators available (the comparable B&Q heater is £49) but this wins out for its solid design, easy controls, silent running and a good constant temperature. Despite its size it’s more manoeuvrable than other oil-filled heaters, with two handholds, big casters and an extendable wheelbase.
One thing to note is that in a poorly insulated room with a high ceiling, the chimney effect didn’t work - the heat escaped rather than circulating. You’d be better off with a fan or halogen heater in those circumstances.
We like: a classic finned radiator that’s light and portable, best suited to smallish rooms
We don’t like: it struggles to heat larger rooms
The seven-fin design means the ECR15 radiates some heat sideways but chiefly, as with the VonHaus above, this is designed to heat a column of air, using convection to heat the whole room over time. I found it heated up much more quickly than an oil-filled radiator and, in a small room, reached a nice stable temperature after about 30 minutes.
It’s light enough to pick up with one hand and simple to set up, needing no tools to attach the feet. The only controls are a large thermostat dial and large power dial for choosing between 500, 1000 and 1500 Watts. Keep it set to 500W and use the thermostat wisely and it should be cheap to run (slightly cheaper than an equivalent oil-filled radiator).
Digital timer versions are available, as are more powerful nine-fin versions, but for a small, light, portable space heater this is just right. Cheaper competitors I tested tended to be less robust and lacked safety features like the tip-over switch. The anti-frost setting, keeping the temperature in cold rooms from dipping beneath five degrees, is a useful bonus.
We like: the low weight, good looks and quick heat-up, although it’s not for all-day use
We don’t like: even the lowest mode uses a fair amount of energy
A good fan heater should warm a large area quickly. They can use more energy than the convection heaters above, but the heat can be directed where you want it and, as long as you use the thermostat wisely, they don’t have to be too expensive to run.
DeLonghi’s HFX65 is the best fan heater I found at this price point (the John Lewis Tall Tower Heater is similar, but dearer at full price). It’s extremely light and portable and stands two feet high but only seven inches across, so it can be set unobtrusively in a corner, looking pretty good with its simple black-and-white design. It’s not silent, but with the TV on I couldn’t hear it.
In a draughty room, with the power set to maximum, my temperature reading from ten feet away started rising immediately and took only half an hour to increase by five degrees, which is much quicker than the non-fan heaters above. It’s clearly doing quite a lot of work as it oscillates back and forth, but there’s an Eco Plus mode which can switch between 1.2kW/h and the 2kW/h power settings automatically, to maintain your set temperature without wasting too much electricity.
There’s also a timer function but that’s pretty much it, making the DeLonghi admirably simple. It’s a good choice to keep one or two people warm in a large room. You just wouldn’t keep it blowing for long periods of time.
Best heater for a large room, 8/10
We like: it’s a solid, dependable appliance that heats up super quickly
We don’t like: it looks like it belongs in an office (rather than a living room)
It’s not exactly a looker, but this very reasonably priced 2kW convector heater works a charm. Its core boast is that it heats up in a minute, thanks to special mica panels Duronic has developed. The panels also radiate heat sideways, not just upwards, making it a good choice to place by a favourite seat in a large room. (It should not be placed against a wall.)
It’s remarkably light and, once hot, can be set to a lower (1kW) output, which can help save on bills. Unlike fan heaters, it’s practically silent, too. A solid, dependable convection heater that, if you can get past the pedestrian looks, is well worth considering.
We like: an undeniably stylish unit
We don’t like: elderly or the non tech-savvy will struggle with the controls
Best to be brutally honest: this one is not suitable for old people. The legs are impossibly fiddly to put on (you need tiny nimble fingers) and it pretty much insists you download the app - and wants to join your wifi network too. I’m only in my 40s but if it had been much more complicated to configure, I would have given up.
Once set up though, the app is actually simple: just a temperature dial, a high/low power switch and a 24-hour timer. These functions are also available using touch-sensitive controls on the heater’s ‘screen’ which go invisible when you’re not using them. So it’s not as complicated as it looks, just more complicated than it needs to be.
The high tech approach leaves the device looking impressively minimal: just a sleek black (or white) rectangle that wouldn’t look out of place in a tech billionaire’s bedroom. It can be hung on the wall or moved around: it’s very light and the ends don’t get hot, so you can pick it up.
I had been expecting it to radiate heat from its panel, but it rises from the grille behind it just like any other space heater. It took 20 minutes to notice any warmth from the other side of the room, but after that it rose steadily. Smaller 1000W and larger 2000W versions are available but the 1500W one I tried was just right for warming up a bedroom, office or kitchen where it would look - I can’t believe I’m saying this about a heater - highly desirable.
We like: the only type of heater that heats sideways
We don’t like: can’t easily be used without an app
I thought the Princess heater above would radiate heat sideways, but it turned out to be a convection heater in disguise. This panel heater really does heat sideways. Made in Poland, it’s one of a new breed of infrared heaters that work in a similar way to patio heaters or, as the sales literature proudly points out, like the sun itself.
The radiation doesn’t heat the air, just the surfaces it hits. Hold your hand above the AENO and you won’t feel much heat at all, but sit in range of its invisible rays (they reach about five feet) and you will feel a nice, toasty warmth like a summer’s day. The perfect use is in a draughty room with high ceilings, where most of the heat from convection heaters would be wasted. Here, none of it is wasted.
As a space heater, however, it works less well. It can heat a whole room, but very, very, very slowly. Since it doesn’t heat the air itself, it depends on the things heated up by its rays (your legs, the couch, the floor) radiating warmth back into the room, gradually increasing the ambient temperature over time. In my test, it took well over an hour to register any difference from 10 feet away.
On the plus side, it draws much less power than the 1.5kW and 2kW oil heaters, so is cheaper in use. And unlike fan heaters, it doesn’t blow hot dust around, making it better for people with allergies, and doesn’t dry the air out, so you won’t need a humidifier. It also looks beautiful, being just a centimetre thick. Buy it in white, fix it to the wall and it’ll be practically invisible. (You can even fix it to the ceiling.)
There are downsides, though. I found it absolutely baffling to set up. There are just three buttons, with no indication of what they do. One of them was flashing purple which, according to the skimpy pamphlet, meant it wanted to connect to the wi-fi. Having moved it to a room with a stronger signal and downloaded the app, it did eventually come to life, but until then it was just an expensive brick. My elderly mum wouldn’t even be able to turn it on.
Another drawback is that the panel gets extremely hot to the touch, making it a danger to toddlers and pets. You can set it to a lower temperature (which also saves money), but that cuts down its effective range to just a couple of feet.
Still, it’s very well made – the Poles now rival the Germans for build quality – and in certain circumstances will be the perfect, cheap-to-run heater. Just not in others.
We like: surprisingly powerful for something the size of a coffee cup
We don’t like: it only warms the immediate surrounding area due to the size
Tiny heaters like this, which plug directly into the power socket with no cables, are a relatively new invention. They all look pretty much the same, in fact many are the same product with different branding, but the Russell Hobbs version seems to be the one people want.
At 500W, it offers the same power at maximum setting as some of the full-sized heaters above do on minimum. It makes some noise, but not much more than an old disc-driven computer. Apart from the temperature setting, the only other control is a timer to switch it off after up to 12 hours.
I doubt you’d leave it on that long. This is best suited to warming up a small room like a kid’s bedroom just before putting them to bed, or in a small study while working. I tried it plugged in at desk level but it was much more effective at knee-height: the plume of warm air extends outwards and upwards for about six feet.
A larger 700W version is available, but isn’t as portable. I’ll be keeping the 500W one in my suitcase for cold days on holiday.
We like: the quiet power, although the price and scarcity put it largely out of reach
We don’t like: it’s expensive and drinks energy
Stocks of many Dyson products, including the Hot+Cool, are running low and may run out before the next cold snap. So, if the high price doesn’t put you off, it may be best to buy this powerful 2100W room heater sooner rather than later. This is the Pure version, with a HEPA filter to remove 99.95 percent of microscopic allergens and pollutants. It’s slightly easier to come by than the cheaper base model.
There are certainly cheaper equivalents (the Philips 3-in-1 is £300), but the quick room-heating power of Dyson’s famous air-multiplier technology makes this a justifiable high-end choice. At low speed it’s quiet enough to use in a bedroom and in a hot summer, the cooler function is very welcome at night.
Best heater for a conservatory, 7/10
We like: the country home aesthetic
We don’t like: the very high price
Talking of high-end choices… Cotswolds-based Everhot, chief rival to Aga, have just launched a miniature stove that we must include given that it’s the most Telegraph electric heater imaginable.
Standing knee-high, it can be plugged in anywhere, but you won’t be moving it around much: at 50kg, it takes two people to lift and does get very hot. The heat escapes from the vent at the top, making this a convection heater like many others, but after about half an hour the rest of the cast iron body heats up too, radiating warmth outwards for quite a while after it’s turned off.
Inside the 20-litre oven compartment it reaches up to 200C, hot enough to bake a potato or slow-cook a casserole. It’s no replacement for an actual oven but makes a good focal point for a conservatory or, as Everhot say: “annexes, holiday cottages, narrow boats, shepherds huts and glamping pods” — which gives you an idea of the target market. It comes in 20 Farrow & Ball-type colours and generates a steady, toasty warmth. But you certainly pay for it.
According to technical service manager at Pimlico Plumbers Bennett, these are the most efficient on the whole. They use an electrical current within thermal oil, heating the oil and circulating it around the heater, a bit like water in a radiator. They are convection heaters, meaning that as the heat rises it draws in cooler air in underneath to be heated in turn - an effect that works best in well-sealed rooms.
Oil-filled heaters tend to be more cumbersome, as the oil adds weight, and can take a long time to warm up – upwards of 20 minutes – but they stay warm for a long time once they’re turned off. Oil-filled radiators are relatively cheap to run, costing as little as 26p per hour at today’s prices, and there is no need to replace the oil. Prices for a good model start roughly at the £50 mark.
Often used outdoors as patio heaters, these radiate heat directly onto objects, rather than relying on convection to circulate the warmth. They’re light and portable and cost around 50p per hour to run (based on a 1500W heater on maximum setting). However, they struggle in large spaces. Like most portable heaters, you can pick one up for under £20, but can easily spend over £100, too.
These use an electric coil to create heat and then blow the warmth across the room. They are cheap and light, but noisy and the warmth can be quickly lost if you let in a draught. Modern models use ceramic elements, which get more resistant as they get hotter (they have a “positive thermal coefficient”). This means they produce heat more quickly and retain it better, making them cheaper to run than fan heaters used to be — as long as you use the thermostat wisely. Otherwise you could easily wind up spending over £1 an hour. Scroll to the bottom of this feature for more detail on the cost of electricity.
The most useful addition is a timer, allowing you to set the heating for the moment you wake up or arrive home. Upmarket models use an app for this, although you’d get much the same functionality with a smart plug.
Frost protection is a common extra and sees the heater automatically switch on when the room goes below 5C.
Many fan heaters also have a cold air setting – they essentially double up as fans in the summer. While not as potent as air conditioners, it could save you having to fit both appliances into your house.
The most important thing is to never place anything combustible on or too close to the appliance. If using a fan heater, consider whether anything nearby can be blown over (it’s also worth noting that fan heaters should be placed in sufficient space to facilitate an airflow from behind).
Many heaters will come with tilt protection: should something knock it over, like a pet or a small child, it will switch off. Most also have overheat protection, switching the appliance off before it can reach flammable temperatures if, for example, a coat is accidentally placed on top of the heater.
According to Electrical Safety First, there are several other safety measures to implement: Never leave portable heaters unattended. Never leave them on while asleep. Position them away from anything which can knock them over. Keep at least a metre away from combustible materials. Never buy second-hand halogen heaters. Never power a halogen heater from an extension lead. Regularly inspect your heater and don’t use if it is damaged.
* The cost of one kiloWatt-hour of electricity is capped at 34p under the Energy Price Guarantee announced by the Government in October 2022. Although prices do vary by region and contract (economy 7 tariffs are more expensive by day and cheaper by night, for example), we use the capped price to estimate running costs. If the average variable unit price for energy changes, this article will be updated accordingly.
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