Space heaters?

Anyone have suggestions for a safe way of heating a room over the winter? It's looking to be a cold season.

Your easiest solution would be an oil filled radiator heater.
I got a 1500 watt model from Lowe's for something like $40 and it heats very well. I use it for overnight heating in my herp room. The room is 13x26 with 10 foot ceiling and I've never had to turn the heater wide open, they put out good heat.

They work by using electricity to heat oil which is sealed inside the radiator fins. The oil then gives off heat and the heater cycles on and off to keep the oil at the set temperature.
They're free standing and just plug into the wall.
A nice feature is even if you're heating the room to the mid seventies, yo ucan still touch the fins of the heater and not get burned.

I've used the oil filled ones a time or two as well and they are good. There are a variety of models out there and many are of good quality. Some use forced air over heater metal plates or wires and I found one this yeas that actually rotates like a fan to disperse the heat more evenly.

One thing I will caution though is to replace it every year. This year I used one that I got last year, it was great, heated the room, never a problem. Then one morning I went out to the snake room before going in to work, and I almost didn't because I had a really long day ahead of me. It's a good thing I did as the thermostat had failed and the room was at 94 and the heater was going full blast.

Of course a backup thermostat would have nipped this problem in the bud but,I would still recommond yearly replacement. Just another business expense.

Wes Pollock

I use three of those oil filled heaters and they are awesome I just got some new ones that are digital and they are awesome and pretty safe if you ask me.And work very well.

I'll agree, I have used them and they work great! In AZ last winter I didn't even refill my propain tank the oil filled heaters worked so good.

I have a LUX ELV1001 baseboard thermostat with a cord attached that I'd be willing to cut you a deal on if you want something to control the temps even better. I used this in my 10x12 room with one oil filled and it worked great! Only reason I think I used this instead of a Ranco was it had settings so I could do a night drop. I think, I can't remember for sure now though. Yeah that's right, I would have needed two Rancos and a timer to do it with them.

As a side note, I don't know if it's safe but I always ran a fan on mine as well just to move the heat. I thought I heard this wasn't a good idea but I didn't have any troubles.

Ditto on the oil filled radiator heaters. I have two in my snake building and another in my den (where I keep some snakes). I also have a gas heater which I run as well and that also serves as back up in my snake building because the power goes out alot out here in the woods. There was a storm last night and we lost power for about five hours. I'm still unsure however as to which is cheaper to run.

Take care & God bless,
Phil Frost
ZNJ Exotics
znjexotics@hotmail.com

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another; it is the only means.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

My original heat in the herp room was a Monitor 30 with a propane wall mounted heater as a back up.
The Monitor finally gave up the ghost, and left me with only the propane. It's a great heater as far as getting the room warm, but it doesn't have an adequate thermostat control and this is my only fault with it. Once the thermostat reaches setpoint, it only turns off the fan but the flame still burns.
I don't know if you can get propane heaters that actually cycle the flame on and off with a thermostat, but my gas logs don't do it either, and it keeps me from being able to leave the propane heater on at night for heat, as the room would get too warm.
So I heat the room during the day while I'm working in there with the propane but set the oil filled at night just to keep the room temperature from falling below the lower 70s.

Clay,
I have a Rennai model with a thermostat that cycles the heater on and off. They're pricey, but they're suppose to be top of the line propane heaters. When it's not too cold I often run just the propane heater by itself (all day or all night) and it maintains an adequate temperature.

God bless,
Phil