In what situations would I pick a ceramic electric heater, which tends to be a bit more expensive, versus a fan forced electric heater? They are both 1500 W.
I have a recollection of Consumer Reports doing an article on various types of space heaters. The advantage of the ceramic was that the heating element never got hot enough to set fire to anything. They do have fans in them, though.
We’ve got one in our bathroom - corner of the house, all tile, gets very cold in the winter if we don’t have extra heat. It’s small enough that it sits nicely on top of the medicine cabinet, away from any stray splashes. I don’t think it would heat a very large space all that well though.
For some applications I would recommend http://www.hydrosil.com/ heaters, the silicon oil around the coil acts as a heat sink, and according to my friend Pat the thermostat actually works. If yo set it on low, it keeps a lesser heat, if you set it on high it cranks out the heat. They come either installed or portable.
For my comfort, I happen to like radiant heaters. Cozy Legs uses about the same electricity as a light bulb and keeps me toasty warm - it heats ME, not everything. They make larger radiant heating panels, all the way up to large ones designed to heat entire rooms like in an office building or a living room…
Radiant heat is fairly on and off. That means when it’s off you instantly feel cooler.
Sometimes you want that, but usually you want even heat.
Oil filled give the most even heat for long period or big rooms, but they stay hot a good half hour after you shut them off.
My son’s room is usually far too cold in the winter. For some time we’ve had a fan-forced portable heater in his room. We’ve gone through about three of them over the years. The thermostats never work properly, and they end up making the air horribly dry. I finally gave up and brought up a radiator-style one we’d been using in the basement (no fan, just radiates heat; not sure if it’s ceramic or something else) and it’s SO much better. I can’t believe we didn’t do this two winters ago. It’s also much quieter.