Heater Buyer's guide:

Heater Basics

Whether you need to supplement your existing heating system, heat specific rooms in a house, or even provide heating for an outdoor room or patio, portable heaters offer a wide range of applications to suit your needs. Their convenient design allows them to be easily installed, and moved from room to room as needed. Most heaters also offer portability features such as rolling caster wheels or cool-touch handles for added convenience.

Heating Power

In order to determine the effectiveness of a particular heater, it is helpful to understand how heaters are rated. The heat output of fuel powered heaters is measured in terms of BTU's, while the heat output of electric heaters is measured in terms of wattage. A BTU is a British Thermal Unit, and one BTU is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 lb. of water 1 degree Fahrenheit. If you multiply a heater's wattage by 3.41 you will obtain the amount of BTU's you can expect from the heater. For example, a heater putting out a maximum of 1,500 watts would produce the equivalent of 5,115 BTU's.