How To Choose An Electric Radiator For Your Home

Electric radiators are becoming a popular choice in homes where people want a little versatility and freedom when it comes to where radiators go, and how they look. If you read the recent post on the blog about How To Choose An Electric Heater, you’ll know that choosing an electrical product for any space means you have to look “beyond the features”.

That’s precisely what we’re going to be doing in this post, as we look at how to choose an electric radiator for your home. You don’t want a radiator that comes with all the bells and whistles attached. You simply want an electric radiator which works just like a traditional radiator, and here is how you do that.

You consider location

The first, and most significant benefit you get from electric radiators is something not traditionally associated with radiators; freedom of movement. With traditional radiators, pipework has to be factored in as you’ll know you have a set location for placement, placing you at a disadvantage of having to arrange everything else in the room around this static feature.

Electric radiators only need to be connected to your electric, either by being wired like a light switch or being placed near a plug socket. Such freedom means you can pretty much put an electric radiator anywhere you like; an ideal trait when you have tricky rooms like the living room or bedroom and would traditionally find that items are impeded because an immovable radiator is in the way.

While this is good for the overall look of a space, I would suggest you keep in mind that placing electric radiators behind doors and furniture, or under windows, may see you wasting energy.

You consider output

Electric radiators are generally designed to match the heat output of traditional radiators, but this can vary depending on the make and model. Radiators work on a metric called BTU; a general assumption of how much heat a radiator needs to generate to warm a space. Electric radiators work off of wattage, and the two aren’t like for like.

1 W is equal to 3.41 BTU/h, so anytime you’re looking at an electric radiator, multiply the wattage to see if it is ideal for your room’s heat requirements.

You consider design

Electric radiators aren’t at all like electric heaters. You can install one, and no one would be any the wiser that it isn’t a traditional radiator. Don’t have the impression that you’re limited by design types. For example, a site like Trade Radiators provides a selection of electric radiators which include designer, panel, column, vertical and even cast-iron modes.

You can even hide a radiator in plain sight by choosing an infrared electric radiator. These are arguably the most impressive radiators you’ll ever see, as they look like glass panels on the wall, but actually provide directional heat in living rooms. I’ve never seen anything like them, and they’ll change how you think about radiators.

You consider price

These radiators need to have an internal element and thermal fluid inside to work. Conversely, a traditional radiator is empty inside for hot water to flow through. The interior work and parts involved usually mean that electric radiators are ever so slightly more expensive than standard radiators.

If you were just looking for one or two to have in certain rooms, it’s worthwhile. If you already have a traditional heating system, and considered replacing every radiator with an electric model, it may be cheaper just to keep traditional radiators instead.

Need help choosing products?

Whether you’re in the market for a new radiator, cooker, table or anything at home, make sure you visit the review section of the website. It has reviews on all the latest home products.