How to Choose a Space Heater for a Bedroom

For a bedroom, pick a heater that reaches your room size at a wattage your circuit can carry (usually up to 1,500 W on a standard 15 A circuit), with a thermostat and tip-over and overheat shut-off. Choose the type by whether you want fast heat or quiet heat.

• A rough rule is about 10 watts per square foot for an average, insulated room.
• A 120 ft² bedroom points to about 1,200 W; a 150 ft² room to about 1,500 W.
• Adjust up for poor insulation or a cold exterior wall, down for a well-insulated small room.
• Do not run a 1,500 W heater on the same circuit as other high-draw appliances.

• Ceramic / fan-forced: heats fast, moves air, but the fan makes some noise.
• Oil-filled / radiant: quiet and steady, but slower to warm the room and heavier.
• Infrared / radiant: warms people and objects in line of sight, quiet, but not the whole room.
• For sleeping, a quiet oil-filled or infrared unit is usually preferred over a noisy fan-forced one.

• Keep at least 3 feet (about 1 m) of clear space around the heater.
• Look for tip-over shut-off, overheat protection and a cool-touch housing.
• Never use an undersized extension cord or a power strip.
• Running cost: watts / 1000 x hours x your price per kWh. A 1,500 W unit at $0.15/kWh costs about $0.23 per hour.

• Buying the biggest heater and tripping the breaker.
• Placing it against bedding or curtains.
• Expecting a space heater to warm a whole house.
• Ignoring the fan noise until it is too loud to sleep.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission guidance on space heater safety; U.S. Department of Energy guidance on estimating appliance electricity use.