Heaters Buyer's Guide

How to Choose the Best Heater for Your Needs

A Buyer’s Guide to Heaters

When buying a heater, it can be tempting to respond to your immediate need, you’re cold, you want to be warm!  But just like food shopping when you’re hungry you can end up buying impulsively. Similarly, you may inadvertently choose a heater with insufficient output for your needs. That’s why it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the types of heaters available and the kinds of setting they are best suited for. This buyer’s guide is designed to help you do that.

When winter arrives it pays to be prepared. As cold weather approaches, an unexpected cold snap could drastically affect your comfort at home or those of your employees and customers in a commercial or industrial setting.

In larger buildings where airflow is limited, additional heating may be required to ensure a comfortable ambient temperature throughout.

At Machine Mart we supply Clarke heaters which cater for all scenarios, whether domestic, industrial or commercial. There are many types, including Space Heaters, Radiant Heaters, Halogen Heaters and Industrial Heaters. Each has its own merit.

Space Heaters

Space heaters heat large spaces. They work by heating the air and are ideal for heating an industrial unit. Great as a fall-back option should the boiler fail, they are either diesel powered or gas fired and can vary in output. They operate from a 13A plug, but by heating the fuel inside are able to massively amplify the heat generated than from a standard electric heater and blow that heat into large spaces to heat them quickly. For convenience, we also supply trolley-mounted models so you can easily transport the heat where it is needed.

Halogen & Radiant Heaters

Halogen heaters are favoured in an external setting and are typically used as patio heaters, and for heating smoking areas and al fresco dining spaces. Halogen heaters are also infrared and so only heat solid objects, like humans, rather than the air so there is no loss of heat when used as a heat source outside.

Perfect for cold spots, gas, diesel or electrically-powered radiant heaters work by radiating infrared light and heating solid objects. With no naked flame, this is often a safer option, especially in high- traffic pedestrian areas where customers could harm themselves.

Industrial Heaters

Our range of electric fan heaters is perfect for external buildings and lean-to extensions. They heat up the room up quickly and efficiently.  A low heat setting can take the chill off an exposed conservatory or outbuilding and can be ideal for heating a garage or workshop.

Domestic Heaters

The MGH2 Mobile Gas Heater has the look of a traditional propane gas fire. However, unlike the traditional models, the MGH2 is designed to fold away when not in use making it an incredibly practical way of easily heating your home or office.

Take a look at our full range of heaters.

How to Calculate Which Heater You Need

The output of a heater is measured in Watts (W) and kilowatts (kW) for electric heaters and British Thermal Units (BTU) for all the others. 1 Watt is approximately 3.412BTU. There are 3 steps to calculate the power of heater you need, you should consider the volume of the space to be heated, how much you need the temperature to increase by and how well insulated your space is.

The volume of the space is calculated by the following formula - width x length x height. So, for example a single garage 3m wide x 5m long x 2.5m high will have a volume of 37.5 cubic meters.

This figure should be multiplied by the required rise in temperature, in °Celsius.
You should then multiply it again by the figure below, depending on the level of insulation in the building.

This figure is calculated dependent on the amount of insulation your space has. From no insulation, light, medium or heavily insulated.

For No Insulation multiply by 3.5, Light Insulation x 2.5, Medium Insulation x 1.5 and Heavy Insulation x 0.5.

To convert this figure to BTU, multiply this number by 4.

In our example, the single garage, with a temperature rise of 10°C and no insulation, the calculation would be:

37.5 x 10 x 3.5 x 4 = 5250BTU. 

(To convert this to kilowatts divide 5250BTU by 3412 = 1.5kW)