Home > Categories > Homeware > Environmental Control > Econo Heat Electric Wall Heater 400W review
Effectiveness of any heater is determined by how well that heater distributes heat around a room in relation to the amount of electricity it uses. We believe ECONO-HEAT are very effective in doing just that. They are an economic convector heater that naturally draws in cold air from the floor of the room and then circulates this warm air around the whole room.
We believe the ECONO-HEAT wall panel heaters are one of the most economical electric panel heaters on the market today. The heater is such a low wattage (only 260 and 400 watts) to operate. The 260 watt uses approx 7* cents electricity per hour and the 400 watt uses approx 10* cents of electricity per hour, that is the equivalent power consumed by 3-5 incandescent light bulbs.
*Based on an electricity price of 25 cents per unit (kWh), including GST
eHeaters are slim, sleek, stylish and aesthetically pleasing. When they're painted the same colour as the walls, you hardly know they're there!
The panel heater has no exposed elements and a surface temperature of approximately 70°C to 90°C. It is not made of metal and because it is mounted to a wall it won't tip over. This product is a heater and does become hot to touch. As long as a child is over 2 years old or a person has a 'reflex reaction' and the ability to remove themselves from the panel quickly we do not expect them to be burnt, babies and children should never be left unsupervised while the panel heater is on.
Product reviews...
We were lucky enough to We have a very large home which also has an extra room/ shower/ toilet attached to it at the back end. This extra room was my sons bedroom but being so far from the rest of us he asked to be moved to the main house and this room became their entertainment/ games room.
Our main rooms in our home are heated by a multi fuel burner, a heat pump and a coal range. The entertainment room has no heating and because it is so far from the main part of our home, none of our heating units reach that end of the house. In summer the room is the ultimate room to be in with half of one wall being a large sliding door and half of another wall being a huge window. This allows for all day sunshine and a fantastically warm (at timez to hot) area. But in winter the room is like an ice box.
We were lucky enough to recently be given one of these panel wall heaters as a gift recently. So we decided the games room was the perfect location for it. The heater comes with everything you need to attach it to the wall and it is very easy to install. It took about 20mins to install, which included measuring the area for the screws. Once installed it was also easy to set and work. So we switched it on and left it be. The room is very large so it did take a long timd to notice a difference. But it did take the chill off eventually.
These heaters are most definitely best suited for small areas. And they do have an impact on the power bill. To be honest I expected it to be a lot cheaper than it is to run. Perhaps a smaller room may make a difference with that. Due to the cost to run the boys flick it on after school and flick it off at 8pm. It does the trick ok :)
We bought one of these for our son's room as there was no heating in his room and it would get quite chilly in there during winter. We had heard good things about Wall Panel heaters and decided to get the original Econo Heat one. We got it on special so only paid about $120 for the 400w version, so it pays to shop around a bit with these and get the best deal.
Was really quick and easy to install and screw into the wall which was a bonus, it just took a drill and some screws and it was up, and when we take it down there will just be 4 screw holes so doesn't cause any damage to the walls. It took my partner just a couple of minutes to have it securely hung on the wall. The only pain thing was that we got the one with the short cord, thinking it would be fine where we wanted it it wouldn't need a long cord only to find the place we thought we could put it was right on a stud!!
The option is there for a longer cord at no extra cost, so would pay to check whether you will need a longer cord to have it plugged in where you want it to be. The option is there if you want to paint them to match the colours of your room which I thought was pretty cool, but we decided not to paint it as it doesn't look bad or anything on the wall so have just left it how it is.
Now the thing I have found is these only really take the chill out of the room they don't make it really warm. We have a thermometer in my son's room and through the winter with this going his room has only been about 18 degrees on the cooler nights, so if you are expecting an enveloping heat you won't get it with one of these, they are really only effective at taking the edge off the chill and in small spaces in my experience.
The other thing we found was they aren't actually as economical as we were expecting, we turn it on at about 5pm and turn it off at 7 am when our son wakes and found when we started using it, our power bills doubled which was a bit of a shock, it turned out that using this every night added about $120 a month to our power bill!
Because we need to keep Cai's room warm we will continue to use this despite the power bill, but there are definitely more economical and effective ways to heat your home so just do your homework before you buy and make sure they will suit your needs.
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