Our problem in the Northeast is that electric rates are extremely high. Before buying a unit, caulk, weather-strip and insulate the room you plan on heating. In this way it will minimize the length of time you will need to heat that area. Wear the proper winter clothes (sweaters) to further reduce body heat loss. With the high cost, electric heaters should be used to supplement your central heating unit. Heating a room solely using space heaters would be extremely expensive. Understanding the basics of hot air, in that it rises, the type of electric unit you purchase is important. Metal is a great conductor or distributor of heat while plastic or glass will slow down that distribution. Plastic also tends to crack with high levels of heat. There is a reason why home baseboards are made of steel not plastic. Have found that convention heaters are best for heating a area for a sustained periods of time. Oil filled or metal baseboard units are convection type heaters, while preferring oil filled ones cause they continue to throw heat after they have been turned off. Last, would recommend putting a metal shelve or table, with necessary clearance, above your portable heater. The metal will slow down heat escaping right up to the ceiling and will absorb the heat to slowly redistribute. Always remember to be careful when using any electric heater both for safety and affordability.

Every home is different, but I think the basic strategy for insulating a home should go in this order: 1) Attic: seal all air leaks and then insulate to R-value for your area. Include in attic sealing any and all ventilators, flues, recessed lighting, etc. 2) Floor: seal all air leaks and insulate to about 1/4 to 1/2 R value of attic. 3) Walls: Seal any leaks and insulate to recommended R-value. 4) Windows: Seal any air leaks and replace with low-E insulated windows. I address the heating system separately but this may be a priority if it's in real bad shape. Often ducted systems in older homes can have major leaks, so a complete inspection is in order. After I sealed my 64 year old home's attic air leaks and insulated to between R-13 and R-25, I saw a 30% drop in winter heating gas consumption. The home had been remodeled in the 60's, and there were some very major air leaks going on. Mainly, a centrally located cooktop hood with no damper, defective damper in fireplace in adjoining family room, and various gaps around ceiling light and fan fixtures. The following year I insulated under the floor of the master bed/bath, and sealed some pretty major heating duct leaks (some gaps were big enough to stick a hand into!) and insulated the outside of the ductwork to R-5. I also boosted the attic insulation to between R-38 and R-50. After this I saw another approx. 15% drop in heating gas consumption. Plus the home is much more comfortable without all those drafts going on. My next project is to finish insulating under the rest of the rooms, and finish wrapping insulation around a few more feet of heating duct down there. At some point, it would be nice to replace the windows, but it's not a priority. Note: before insulating an uninsulated attic, make sure the attic eaves/soffits are properly ventilated. Insulating an inadequately vented attic can result in condensation and moisture damage.

I have had two Broan/Nutone heater/vent/light/nightlight units since 2005. The first one had the heater burn out, which hubby and the contractor who was here for something else replaced. Then the light on it went POP and flamed out, so we decided to replace the whole thing because DH, who was in the bathroom at the time, said that sparks flew. When the contractor was back for something else again, I gave him the new unit (same model because we had blown-in insulation and did not want him crawling around in the attic to change the larger vent pipe that we needed to downsize if we switched to Panasonic) and he installed the different parts into the old housing because it was easier and the big metal boxes were the same. The heater on this one has now quit working. Now I will admit that we sometimes forgot and left the heater running for hours. The heater burning out was likely our fault. So I second (third?) the call for putting the heater on a timer. We are planning a remodel of this room and so the old aluminum slider window is still not replaced. We can't use window film in the winter anymore because we need to open this window to get the attention of our elderly dog when he gets "lost" in the yard and is barking during late-night potty breaks. So it is darn cold in this bathroom sometimes! We need something for additional heat. I don't know if I will go for the radiant light bulbs (remember the red heater bulbs?) or electric cove heating or just electric -in-floor heating. I used electric cove heating in my father-in-law's room when he was an invalid, and it worked very well giving his room the extra few degrees he needed. Here is a link: Comfort Cove We just had a thermostat in his room to run the cove heater, and it kept his room toasty. My DH reminded me the other day that when you get out of the shower wet, the heater fan blowing on you does make you feel cold. Its heat is not nearly as warm as you are after the shower. The cove heat is silent, another plus. I bet it will help dry and warm the towels hanging across from it, too. I had forgotten about the Comfort Cove heater because we had to disconnect it back in 2010 when we remodeled the kitchen. We ran out of circuits and I had to steal the Comfort Cover circuit for the stove top's down draft fan! I need to get a new service panel.

Add underfloor heating and the separate heater and separate fan. They should be located strategically. And do a towel warmer. It won’t be too warm. Hopefully it will be enough. When your body is wet, and air is moving, as it needs to be in order to control the excess humidity released into your home, the skin can become quite chilled. Even in quite warm temperatures, people can feel cold when they are wet. That’s why it’s important to control the air flow path, potentially with a second fan, and targeted areas of warmth that include the ability to dry off quickly.