September 24th, 2020 by Sarah Miles

When it comes to heating your home there are many options. The most common one is a central heating system, usually controlled by a gas boiler. However, sometimes a more flexible solution is needed, either to enhance central heating or as an alternative to it. Ceramic heaters are one such solution and they have several benefits that make them a really good means of heating your home and even beyond.

How ceramic heaters work

Heaters work in a variety of ways and each will have their own features. Ceramic heaters work using the principle of resistive heating. In simple terms, this is a process that passes an electric current through a conductor to produce heat. In this case, the conductor is a ceramic plate. Ceramic offers excellent thermal conductivity as it offers more resistance to the current. As the current struggles to pass through the ceramic, it produces more heat in doing so!

Ceramic heaters have ceramic plates attached to coils of metal that conduct heat. The ceramic plates then absorb the heat and release it into the air.

The nature of this process gives ceramic heaters a number of advantages, as outlined below:

They heat quickly

Because of the way the ceramic plates absorb heat, they can reach their target temperature very quickly – often faster than other types of heater. They also cool down much quicker once turned off so they are very efficient.

They are energy efficient

Because they heat up quickly, they don’t waste a lot of energy. Once the ceramic reaches the right temperature the electric current decreases and it uses the heat stored in the ceramic material. This means less energy is required to produce more heat so they are economical to run and better for the environment – certainly more so than burning fossil fuels like gas. The efficiency of a ceramic heater varies between 85-90% which compares very favourably to other types of heater.

They offer a high heat for size ratio

Because they are so efficient, they can produce a lot of heat for their size. This is good for rooms where space is at a premium as you only need a small heater. It’s also good for large spaces where you need something more powerful to heat the whole area. Models with fans are particularly effective at heating large rooms and rooms with high ceilings, which can traditionally be difficult to keep warm. This is due to the way the fans help to circulate the air around the space.

They are safe

Ceramic heaters are very safe. Firstly, the ceramic plates completely surround the heating elements so there’s no possibility of sparks potentially creating a fire risk. They also have safety features built-in, including fans that both aid the convection heating process and prevent it from overheating. A thermostat constantly measures the temperature, allowing it to reduce the current and prevent it overheating.

One concern that some may have, compared to heating solutions that are wall-mounted and therefore more secure, is that freestanding heaters could be dangerous if knocked over. Most ceramic heaters have tilt detection technology, meaning it would shut off in the event of being knocked down.

One big advantage over gas central heating is that there is no danger of harmful fumes, such as gas itself or carbon monoxide which a faulty boiler can emit with potentially fatal results.

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They are portable

The benefit of just needing a plug and only needing to be small to heat a large area is that they are very portable and can be moved from room to room as needed. This can be useful when there is just one person at home and it’s, therefore, uneconomical to heat the whole house when only one room is being used at a time. They can simply take the heat with them when they move to a different part of the house!

Don’t think they’re limited to the house either: they can equally be used in caravans, garages, cellars, and outdoor offices or studios. This is usually much easier (and cheaper) than extending the central heating to some of these areas and still energy efficient.

Features you would expect from central heating

Long gone are the days of plug-in heaters that simply turn on or off. Most modern ceramic heaters come with thermostats to regulate the temperature and timers to allow you to programme them to come on and go off at certain times – just like you can with your central heating.

Many even have something called ‘open window detection’. This enables it to detect when a window or door has been left open and is allowing heat to escape rapidly. Because it would be near impossible for a heater to keep up with the heat loss, not to mention very expensive, open window detection monitors for draughts and cuts off if it detects one.

Inexpensive to buy

Often when a heater is efficient to run, it can be more expensive to buy (and vice versa). This is not the case for ceramic heaters which offer a win-win situation of being affordable to both buy and to run.

You can see that there really is a lot to like about ceramic heaters. They come in all sorts of models and some will also offer cool air as well as hot which is great as an all year round unit.