We set up each heater in the centre of our test room and run it on the maximum settings, with the room starting at a cool temperature. We monitor how much the room temperature changed over the course of an hour using temperature probes. We found the most drastic changes happen in the first half an hour and increases in temperature become more incremental after that. Although the comparison might make your electric heater look cheaper to run, bear in mind that it will only be heating a much smaller area, whereas your central heating will be aiming to heat your whole home. Despite the lower-quality build, we were impressed by this heater’s performance. It’s very keenly priced, too. Some modern options also have smart features so you can program them via companion apps and smart speakers. They tend to be cheap to run, but some can be really slow to heat up. Most oil-filled heaters are also fairly heavy and cumbersome, so look out for models that come with wheels.

Fan heaters can consume a lot of electricity in a short space of time, and are therefore best used in smaller and well insulated rooms.For example, a home worker might save cash if they turn off the central heating and use a fan heater to periodically heat their home office throughout the day while the rest of the house isn't in use and needing heat. Portable electric heaters use electricity, which costs 27.35p/kWh under the current energy price cap. Depending on how effective the heater is, they can take anything from 30 minutes to an hour to notably raise the temperature of a medium-sized room, so if you're only planning on using it until the room gets up to temperature, it will likely cost you between 28 and 55p. This model comes with a basic remote control that allows you to adjust oscillation, power settings and room temperature and set an eight-hour timer. You can also control its most basic settings using the large digital display. The VonHaus comes with two power outputs (1kW and 2kW), a single fan speed and a digitally controlled room temperature thermostat for accurate operation. Fan heaters can be moved between rooms and some are so small they can be placed on a desktop. They can also be installed in the wall or ceiling of a room. How much does it cost to run a fan heater per hour?

Convector heaters are usually taller than fan heaters, but thin and light – making them larger, but still relatively easy to move between rooms. Keen to optimise home heating? See our advice on boiler controls and thermostats , smart meters , and loft insulation We use a force meter to record how much is needed to topple each heater over and a decibel meter to measure how much noise each one makes while running. Read our full story on illegal and dangerous plug-in mini heaters for sale on online marketplaces to see those we identified as having serious safety risks.

You don’t get many onboard controls on this sleek cylindrical ceramic heater; but, then again, it’s designed to work via an Apple or Android app, which lets you set your preferred room temperature and even set a schedule to turn it on and off over the course of a week. At 76.4cm in height, the Hot+Cool Formaldehyde is quite a lot shorter than Dyson’s standard tower fans. Nevertheless, it still enjoys the attractive design for which Dyson products are well known. Some portable heaters have useful extras, such as an LCD screen that displays the current temperature or a remote control for turning the heater on from across the room. These features may come in handy: Programmable timer Useful for setting a heater to turn on just before you get home or wake up, so there's no waiting around for the heater to warm up.

Cold air setting Some fan heaters can help cool you down too. They're not nearly as effective as a dedicated air conditioner, but a light breeze of cold air is better than nothing. If you were to try replacing the use of your central heating by putting an electric heater in each room, it will definitely end up costing much more. On the downside, this type can be quite noisy and they don't have some of the more advanced features you can get with convector heaters. We assess how easily each electric heater can be set up and how easily understandable the controls and settings are. We used any handles to lift the heater and move it around. While some heaters can be used straight out of the box, others have complicated program and timer settings. Adjustable thermostat Using this function, a portable heater will heat the room and when the desired temperature is reached, it will try to maintain the room at that temperature. Most of the cheaper, simpler heaters we tested have a dial thermostat that doesn't let you choose specific temperatures in °C. You'll likely need to buy a more expensive model for that. Our tests also found that they're rarely 100% accurate and will probably think the room is a couple of °C warmer or cooler than it is.This attractive Italian-designed model from DeLonghi arrives with a high-quality, cool-to-the-touch metal casing with legs attached. And with its maximum sound pressure of 48dB, it’s one of the quietest fan heaters you can buy. Frost protection The heater can be set to heat automatically when the temperature drops below 5°C, but you'll need to have it on standby for it to run, so this can limit its usefulness.