Nearly all have some kind of carry handle for moving about and many have a safety cut-out feature, which will switch off the heater if it gets dangerously hot. Next up is material. Read through the product description for Glen 500W Wall Mounted or Freestanding Skirt Heater to get an understanding of the materials the product is made from. Some materials will obviously be known for delivering better quality item than others. You might also have decided that you’ll only accept a product made from a particular material. The Glen 500 W Skirting Heater features BEAB approval from the British Electrotechnical Approvals Board as it contains some great safety features. Portable electric heaters use electricity, which costs 28.62p/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 57p.

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.This funky looking skirting heater is made by Glen Dimplex or just ‘Dimplex’ as the brand is better known. 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. The next step for us was to look at all of the products that fall within the Heaters and radiators category, of which we found 55 products at Argos. So we pulled together all of the prices of these products to analyse the average prices as well as finding the cheapest and most expensive options. Dimplex is a leader in the small appliance market so you know that by purchasing this product you are buying a great brand name with great customer service. BEAB Approval

Keen to optimise home heating? See our advice on boiler controls and thermostats , smart meters , and loft insulation These have exposed heating elements, which heat up cold air as it passes. This often leads to slower, but more even, heating. They tend to be a little slower than fan heaters, but are quieter, and our tests found some are still pretty speedy. The unit features an overheat safety cut out mechanism so that the unit does not overheat and cause a fire.The oil in the radiator acts as a heat reservoir, which stays hot for some time after the heater's switched off. Some are called 'oil-free' and function in a comparable way, just with an internal heating element instead of any oil. So let’s carry on with our Glen 500W Wall Mounted or Freestanding Skirt Heater review and explore the product’s pricing. The next step was to try and narrow down our search even more. So we’ve already looked the prices of products in the Heaters and radiators category. Then we’ve also looked at the prices of products from Glen. So this step combines the two and looks specifically at the price you’d expect to pay for Glen branded products in the Heaters and radiators category. Central heating is much more effective at maintaining a stable temperature over a longer period, whereas the heat from an electric heater will soon dissipate if the rest of your home is cold.

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.

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. Price is another really important factor for analysing the quality of Glen 500W Wall Mounted or Freestanding Skirt Heater vs other products in the Heaters and radiators category. It’s obvious, but you will need to set your expectations of quality based on your budget and the price of the product you’re looking at, against the price of alternatives. Under current energy prices, the electric heaters we've tested can cost anything from 9p to 87p per hour to run on full blast.

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: 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.If the brand you buy is important to you, our best advice is to spend some time writing up your own list of ideal brands. That way when you come to the point where you’re comparing product options you can filter to only show the products from brands in your list. Also the front of the unit features a neon light that tells the operator whether or not the machine is working or not. These can still be bought, but they aren't as popular or widely available as fan or convector heaters.