How Powerful a Heater Do We Need to Make The Office a Little Bit Warmer?

In the long process of updating our store to a snazzy new system, we've been wondering about some of the things we sell. How is an ES lamp base different from an E27, and who came up with that system in the first place? How low can we hang a ceiling pendant before it becomes effectively useless? Today, we wondered: how powerful a heater would we need to make this office a little bit warmer? The answer turned out to be simpler than we thought, and then it got more complicated (see a picture presentation of our affordable heating solutions for office).

More Square Footage = More Wattage

Although your new heating system has thermostatic controls, that doesn't mean it will have sufficient power to heat the room to that temperature.

Larger spaces need more heating power (and vice versa). for non-industrial purposes, it's best to think of it in terms of wattage per square foot.

Here's a quick and rough guide to the power needs of different-sized rooms (based on generally accepted stats and technical specs for Convector Heaters).

Area of Room (square feet)	Recommended Heater Wattage
50ft²	350W
100ft²	900W
150ft²	1350W (1.35kW)
200ft²	1800W (1.8kW)
300ft²	2700W (2.7kW)
400ft²	3600W (3.6kW)
500ft²	4500W (4.5kW)
800ft²	7200W (7.2kW)
1000ft²	9000W (9kW)

(Source)

If you're heating a whole space, this is a handy reference, but whole-room heating isn't always the whole picture in every application. In some cases, other methods can replace or complement a space's general heating.

Some Relatively Uncommon Heating Applications

Over-door heaters such as the Dimplex AC3N, or "air curtains," are often used in commercial and retail spaces to combat cold draughts from open doors - and to keep out insects and other pests!

Similarly, a floor heater such as the FFIH recessed floor heater can help keep out draughts that infiltrate a room from underneath the door.

This particular fitting doesn't even require an under-floor air supply; there are inlets and outlets on the grille face itself.

However, if it will face a lot of foot traffic, make sure it won't crack or break. Looking to more domestic applications, the plants in a greenhouse will often succumb to freezing temperatures in the winter, but these spaces do not require the same level of heating as, say, a similarly-sized bathroom.

In these cases, a thermostatic "frost protection" heater will heat the space to a relatively low temperature to keep those plants healthy.

These are just a few examples, of course, and everyone reading this will have different requirements that can't be summed up in a blog post.

If you have questions, why not leave a comment or better yet: pop into our showroom.