Radiant and convection space heaters can be found at any hardware store for a fraction of the hundreds of dollars for the advertised "miracle" heaters. They heat just as well, and some cost as little as $30. Since the advertised heaters you're referring to come in decorative wooden boxes, homeowners need to determine if they are looking to spend money on a wooden box, or on a heater.
The ads have a common theme of huge savings potential. While these claims are not untrue, they are misleading. For example, many ads claim energy bill reductions of 50 percent. The only way they would be able to reduce heating bills by 50 percent is if homeowners used the space heater to heat only in the room they are using, and turned down the thermostat dramatically for the home’s heating system.
According to the U. S. Department of Energy, homeowners can save up to 3 percent on their heating bills for each degree they lower their thermostat for a 24-hour period. To achieve a 50 percent savings, homeowners would have to turn their thermostat down by 17 degrees for 24 hours a day.
Another company’s ad claims that its heater costs only 8 cents an hour to operate on the standard setting. While this may be true, if you add up the numbers, that would mean if the homeowner only ran the heater eight hours a day, it would cost $20 each month to add supplemental heat to that specific room. The only way it would save homeowners money is if they turned the thermostat down in the rest of the house. Most homes do not have only one room that requires heat. If you are trying to decide whether or not you want to purchase a "miracle" space heater, try to remember the old adage, "If it seems too good to be true, it most likely is."
