When electrical energy is converted to heat it’s known as electric heating. You’d find electric heating in cooking, space heating and water heating.

There are a few styles of electric heaters for you to consider, although they all principally deliver hot air to an environment and work in a similar fashion to radiators.

Radiative heaters
A heating element inside the heater reaches a high temperature, allowing the appliance to distribute heat. The element will be contained within a glass package and a reflector will direct heat away.

Because of this element, only people and objects in the room are heated, rather than the air. This is because the element releases infrared radiation that can only be absorbed into a surface.

Many people find radiative heaters ideal for basements and garages where spot heating is required.

Convection heaters
Unlike radiative heaters, the element inside convection heaters warms the air. As hot air is less dense than cool air, it rises, allowing more air into its place. This is a continuous cycle until the room is fully heated.

Convection heaters are ideal for closed places and they’re less hazardous than radiative heaters. This is because there’s only unintended contact with furnishings compared to its radiative counterpart.

This quality makes convection heaters a good choice when left for long periods of time and there’s a very low chance of being burnt.

Storage heaters
Storage heaters take advantage of low electricity prices at times when demand is low. On most occasions they’ll collect electricity overnight and release it intermittently throughout the day, depending on your needs.

The heat is stored in clay bricks, and you’ll find that using storage heaters could reduce your monthly energy bills. Just like other heater types you can adjust the temperature gauge throughout the day.

Fan heaters
This is also known as a forced convection heater as it includes a fan to speed up the airflow. It has an advantage over normal convection heaters as it reduces the thermal resistance between the heating element and the surrounding area. This allows heat to be transferred quicker.

On the downside, these heaters do have a considerable noise to them because of the fan. But they’re still a wise choice and do a very good job if you need quick heating for an enclosed area.