What Is the Best Way to Heat a Large Space?

Heating up a spacious room can be quite a challenge, but thankfully there are a few options for you to choose from.

Duct booster fans, radiant heating under the floor, and space heaters can be used to effectively heat a large space. The homeowners that are opting for a space heater should go for infrared, oil-filled, and propane heaters as, unlike other types, they are able to efficiently heat larger areas.

What Is the Most Efficient Way to Heat a Large Room?

Before proceeding to choose the best heating system for your large room, you should first calculate the number of BTUs that you’re going to need to heat the space.

The square footage of the room is not the only thing that you would have to consider. The ceiling height, house location, insulation quality, and window size and type matter as well.

You can use this simple formula to determine your heating needs, but bear in mind that it takes into account only a few factors from the list mentioned above:

(the desired temperature change) x (cubic feet of space) x 0.133 = the number of BTUs needed per hour

No matter what heating source you are going to go for, there will always be a few more tips that you can follow to heat the room even more efficiently.

• Insulate your house

A properly insulated home boosts the effectiveness of any heating or cooling system. Ideally, the house should be insulated from the roof down to the foundation, and don’t forget to caulk around all doors and windows.

Read: Ductwork Insulation: Everything You Need To Know

• Get a carpet

Nearly 10% of the heat can escape through bare floors. So, a nice carpet or a few rugs are going to help you keep a large room warm. 

• Use your curtains wisely

If you don’t have thick curtains with a thermal lining, then you might want to get a few – they will protect your room from losing heat through the windows. 

At the same time, don’t forget to open the curtains when the sun is shining. Standard windows allow around three-quarters of the sun’s heat to enter the room.

• Keep yourself warm

You wouldn’t have to leave your heater operating for too long if you wear extra layers and get more blankets to keep yourself warm and cozy.

How Do You Heat a Large Room?

A normal HVAC unit pushes heated air out of the vents located in certain rooms in your house. Such a system can be incredibly effective if you have small- or medium-sized rooms.

But if your house has large rooms or an open-space plan, such an ordinary system might not be able to heat the whole area efficiently. Mainly, because heated air travels up, and if the room is too big the air pushed out of the vents might not be able to reach certain parts of the space before rising high to the ceiling.

Read: HVAC UV Light: Everything You Need To Know

What is the best way to heat a large space? Here are a few options that you might want to consider:

• A duct booster fan

Not a lot of homeowners know that there is such a thing as a duct booster. In a nutshell, the thing is a fan that you can attach to the ductwork to increase the airflow to the more distant parts of your large room.

Such a solution is going to work if your HVAC system is in good shape and all it needs is just a little boost.

Read: How To Increase Airflow In Ductwork

• Radiant heating under your floor

There are electric and water-based systems available on the market. Both will provide heating in a large room from the floor up which will result in efficient and consistent warmth.

However, the installation process is quite time-consuming and costly. Moreover, floor heating systems increase the floor height which might be an issue for some.

Read: Is Radiant Heat Cheaper Than Forced Air?

• Space heaters

These types of heaters are among the most convenient heating options, as all you would have to do is get a portable unit, find where to put it, plug the device in – and you have a small but effective heater.

Read: How Much Electricity Space Heaters Use?

What Space Heater Puts Out the Most Heat?

When choosing a space heater for a large room, its type and power are not the only things that you would have to take into consideration.

Airflow is something that you should also think about, otherwise, the heated air won’t be able to make it to every part of the room. For this reason, a lot of homeowners go for a heater that has a blower.

Hint: you can supplement your space heater with additional fans. For example, a ceiling fan does an amazing job at sending the heated air back to the lower part of the room.

There are various types of space heaters out there, but not all of them can be used to efficiently heat up a large room.

Ceramic and small fan space heaters, for example, are not able to heat a very large space. Moreover, the heat transfer from these devices can easily be blocked by different objects.

• An infrared space heater is powered by electricity. It emits electromagnetic waves that heat up the objects in the room.

So, instead of warming up the air, this heater is going to warm you and your furniture. You can go for a heater with a fan for better results.

The heat is long-lasting and continues even when the device is turned off.

• An oil-filled space heater (a radiator heater) runs on electricity and has diathermic oil inside. 

The device heats up extremely fast and can make a room that is smaller than 150 square feet very hot. In larger rooms, an oil-filled heater is best paired with another heating source as this type doesn’t come with a fan.

• Propane space heaters use liquid propane to operate. They produce the hottest heat. 

Such units also emit electromagnetic waves to heat up the objects in the room. You can choose a model with a fan and the great news is that these heaters are amongst the cheapest ones.

Bear in mind that propane heaters are not as safe as other types as they need fuel to operate.

Read: Propane Heater Troubleshooting Guide

Best Heaters for Large Rooms

• Dr. Infrared Heater Portable Space Heater is one of the best models you’ll be able to find for the job.The device is easy to control with the help of a remote. You can change the settings and switch it on and off without even standing up.
  
  Unlike a lot of other space heaters that come with a fan, this one is nice and quiet thanks to the upgraded 7-inch blower. The unit is safe to touch and will automatically shut down if it ever gets tipped over.It uses 12.5 Amps of power and is a 1.500-watt device.
  

• Duraflame Infrared Electric Fireplace Stove is a 5.200 BTU unit that can easily heat up to 1.000 square feet.Moreover, this model simply looks stunning. It comes with a 3D flame effect and looks like a cute fireplace (you can adjust the color and brightness).
  
  Unfortunately, the unit does make noise when it’s on, but that’s the only downside of this device that, by the way, uses zone heating which means that you can choose the areas that you want to heat and avoid ultra-high energy bills.
  
• Vornado MVH Vortex Heater is a 1.500-watt unit that has three heating settings and comes with an adjustable thermostat.The device can easily heat up a 180-square-foot room in a matter of seconds.
  
  The exterior is going to stay cool even after running for the whole day and it is also equipped with an auto-safety shutoff system that is going to turn the unit off if you have simply forgotten about it.The heater offers continuous and uniform heat, is compact and easy to carry around.