Recommend an electric heater.

[gavroche]

What electric heater would you recommend that is efficient and economical for a 3.5 x 3.5 metres room?

 

[fossyant]

Oil filled radiators are great if you need a steady heat - add in a cheap smart plug and you can set the timing via an app (or an old fashioned timer). Fan heaters give an instant heat, but will eat 2kw constantly. Most have a thermostat, but they are noisy in comparison to an oil radiator.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Convector heaters are quite good for heating the air (it does go up so find a way to horizontalise it maybe if your ceilings are high) but they don't do the radiant thing that oil filled ones do.

Edit - fan heaters for a quick fix but not longer term heating

 

[BrumJim]

Listen to this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dxtx

 

[si_c]

I use an oil radiator in my office to save putting the central heating on, it's a similar sized room to you and I find that the lowest setting keeps the room at a comfortable temperature around 18° and doesn't cycle on or off too much so likely plenty of scope to keep the room warmer on low.

It's a Russell Hobbs 2kW radiator, lowest setting is 800W I think, wasn't too expensive around £45, I did have a cheaper unit a few years ago but it didn't put out a decent amount of heat and broke after 18months, this one I've had for nearly 4 years now.

 

[fossyant]

We've a few radiators, ended up with two extra when we got rid of our caravan. We have a little one in the shed office, which works well, and I used to set it on a timer when I was working in there. The Delonghi Dragon in our conservatory must be over 25 years old and still going strong.

 

[presta]

Don't buy one of these, mine turned into a
flame thrower and nearly set the house on fire:

 

[gavroche]

I am edging towards an oil radiator as fan heaters are too noisy and the room goes cold again quickly as soon as they are off.

 

[Kingfisher101]

Get the oil filled radiator one, they are cheaper than the convector ones I've found and they still continue heating the room for about an hour when its turned off. I read a long article about them by Which and the conclusion was they are the best option for energy efficiency and running cost.

 

[Dadam]

Another vote for oil filled radiator. I have a 2kw one in my loft office, on a Tapo smart plug with energy monitoring. If I'm WFH I have it on a schedule to turn on at 6am and off at 9.15. The latter is in case I end up going into work and forget to turn it off. When I'm at home I can override that switch off time if I need to. Today it's been on since 6 and has used 3.9 kwh* which on my current tariff is 80p. I often don't need it on as much in the afternoon as the loft warms up itself because the rooflight windows are on the northwest

* Because of the thermostat it's not on all the time.

The room is about 3x3m but due to the slope of the roof, about half the volume of a 3x3 cube. The only downside to the radiator is it doesn't always convect to heat the entire room quickly enough. I think this is warm air getting trapped in the apex and not circulating as much as it would in a square room.

 

[presta]

Fan heaters are best if you want heat quickly because they circulate the air and have low thermal inertia. A large metal radiator is slow to warm for the same reason it's slow to cool.

 

[Kingfisher101]

Fan heaters though tend to be very loud. They are o.k for a short blast but if you want to sit in the room for longer than a couple of minutes you will not be able to cope with the noise. They are like an aeroplane taking off.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Don't buy one of these, mine turned into a
flame thrower and nearly set the house on fire:

View attachment 748738

I went round to my mum's house in the days before her dementia diagnosis. What I saw made me concerned she might already have it. She had one of the above on full in her dining room, but with the 'DO NOT COVER' vent for the hot air facing fully down on the carpet!! I turned it upright to see a scorch mark on the wool carpet.