Heater for baby's room

October 6, 2018 7:45 PM

What's a safe portable heater for a baby's room that otherwise doesn't have any heating? Bonus if energy efficient.
posted by Jason and Laszlo to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

I’d probably get an oil heater.

All electric resistance heaters are 100% efficient,[1] with operating costs determined by their wattage and the length of operating time.[2] A 500 watt heater will take twice as long to reach the same thermostat setting as a 1000 watt unit; the total consumption of electricity is the same for both.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:08 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yes, oil filled radiators are great. I’ve used a DeLonghi brand one for many years to heat my bedroom and then my son’s room. The only small con is that they can take awhile to heat up compared to ones with fans, so they’re better used to maintain temperature than to heat a cold room from scratch. They’re very safe.
posted by permiechickie at 9:09 PM on October 6, 2018

I used a Dyson heater. It was good for maintaining the baby’s room at the right temperature but they’re expensive and use a lot of power.
posted by bighappyhairydog at 10:29 PM on October 6, 2018

We’ve had a small oil filled heater with a thermostat in my son’s room every winter since he was a baby. It runs silently and the outside doesn’t get too hot, especially if we leave the heat at the lowest setting and let it run for longer periods to warm the room.

Babies and toddlers are susceptible to burns from temperatures that wouldn’t hurt adults or older children, so I would measure the surface temp when it’s running just to be on the safe side. We only used it at night, so we had him in the crib when it was on.
posted by pocams at 10:47 PM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've got a couple of these small 1500 watt ceramic heaters and they're cheap and handy. 1500 watts will produce the same amount of heat regardless of the heater, and that's the most you can run off 110 v U.S. household power. If I run one in my bathroom for a while (which is a good-sized bathroom, mabye 10x12) it will bump up the temperature by about 5 degrees in 30 minutes. One of the nice things about them is that they are so small and lightweight that you could put them up on a piece of furniture out of baby's reach, and they've got tip-over and overheat protection. If baby's room is small (I'm envisioning it's a converted closet or something?) then it doesn't take up precious floor space like an oil-filled heater.
posted by drlith at 6:38 AM on October 7, 2018

If the room is small enough you can get a convection heater
posted by TheLateGreatAbrahamLincoln at 7:59 PM on October 7, 2018

+1 to the oil-filled radiant heater. We used a DeLonghi one with a programmable thermostat to heat our son's room from when he was a newborn until he was four or five and we moved somewhere with built-in heaters. We STILL use that heater occasionally for furnace outages and whatnot, it works perfectly, it's silent, the exterior doesn't get too hot, and it can either keep the room a consistent temp or be programmed to do that only part of the day. It's exactly what you need. It looks like they don't make the exact model I have anymore but this one is close.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:30 AM on October 8, 2018

Actually this one is closer. That other one is more solid on the outside than mine.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:38 AM on October 8, 2018