Electric heaters - Help!

[Twinky]

Good morning All,

I’m looking to buy an electric heater with a plug to improve the heating in my living room.

I’m not an expert and I would like to understand if such heaters can be plugged in in any socket and how many (or what would be the maximum wattage I suppose) I can have plugged in at the same time before blowing up the mains!

Also, do you have any website or product to recommend?

Thank you for your help!

 

[binky]

convector heatrs are usually best option, something upto about 2 kW should work fine without causing problems. 

 

[Geoff1946]

I've always believed that oil filled radiators are by far the safest portable electric heaters.  They are reliable, don't have fans to fail and can't overheat even if covered.

 

[boltonsparky]

It's an expensive way of heating, difficult to say without knowing the house heating setup but you might be better getting thermostatic valves fitted to your radiators and running the boiler but turning off rooms not in use. 

The new LOT20 (a piece of legislation not a brand) electric heaters are far better, and a more expensive initial outlay but not sure if they do freestanding plug in versions. 

If it's a long term thing I'd look at getting a more efficient wall mounted heater with digital thermostat. If it's for occasional use as mentioned above a 2kw convector will be fine.

If you intend to go plugging a load of these things in around the house it'd be worth getting a test done to ensure that at least your socket circuit/s are in a good state. Heaters are heavy loads and any incomplete ring mains or loose connections are going to start causing issues once loaded up with multiple heaters.