Gas Heater Reviews of Types

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Home 9 Residential LPG Blogs 9 Gas Heater Reviews of Types

19 Apr, 2024 | Residential LPG Blogs

In this article:

Pros & cons of various gas heater types, brands & prices to make an informed decision. Rinnai, Everdure, Paloma & Braemar are included…

Gas Heating & Gas Heater Reviews of Types

When you compare types of gas heaters for a house, the best indoor gas room heaters for the home is the one that fits your needs.

To be the best indoor home gas space heaters, it must be sized correctly for your space, be flued gas heaters (gas fixed flued heater) or an unflued (portable), and have the features you want possibly including remote control, thermostat, timer and safety features.

The best indoor gas heater for a house must also be from one of the quality gas heater manufacturers with a strong warranty, like a Rinnai gas heater.

The best indoor gas room heaters for the home also needs to be the one with a price that gives you good value for money.

Concerned that what types of gas heaters your retailer recommends may not be the best choice of home gas space heaters?
What size home gas space heaters should I buy?

Want to find the best price home gas space heaters?

We review what types of gas heaters for the home and prices, comparing the pros and cons of the various gas heating alternatives, to help you make an informed decision…

Gas Heater

A gas heater is a gas space heater used for room heating or outdoor area heating fuelled by natural gas (including CNG and LNG) or LPG (propane, butane or a mixture of the two).

The two general types of gas heaters are flued gas heaters (vented) and unflued gas heaters (unvented).

Gas Heating

Gas heating is the heating of a room or outdoor area using a home gas space heater fuelled by natural gas, LPG (propane or butane) or biogas.

Indoor types of gas heaters include unflued portable gas heaters, flued gas heaters, radiant gas heaters, convector gas heaters, radiant-convectors, and gas fireplaces.

Natural Gas Heating

Natural gas heating can deliver a warm and comfortable home without an uncomfortable energy bill.

Gas heaters are fuel efficient, economical, and durable, as well as the perfect way to stay snug and warm during the cold winter months.

How to Choose the Best LPG Indoor Gas Heater for a House – Best Natural Gas Heater

How to Choose the Best Indoor LPG Gas Heater - Best Natural Gas Heater

The best LPG indoor gas heater or the best natural gas heater for a house all depend on what suits your needs. There are 5 major decisions to make when you choose new gas room heaters for the home.

1.  Which types of gas heaters: Should you choose a Portable (Unflued) gas heaters or flued gas heaters?

2.  You must also choose from the sub-group types of gas heaters for a house, including radiant, convectors, radiant-convectors, flued gas heaters power flued,  flued gas heaters radiant and wall heaters.

3. You need to determine what size gas room heaters for the home you need for the size of the space you want to heat.

4.  It is important to pick what types of gas room heaters for the home from either LPG or Natural Gas types of gas heaters.

5. The gas heater manufacturers you consider should be known for quality and reliability, like the Rinnai gas heater or Paloma gas heater range.

These topics are covered in the following review…

Types of Gas Heaters for a House – Home Gas Space Heaters

There are three different types of gas heaters: Radiant gas heaters, convection heaters that use a fan to circulate the warm air and radiant convectors that combine the two.

These are the types of gas heaters based on heating methodology.

Types of gas room heaters for the home are grouped by gas heating methodology, venting, choice of natural gas or LPG, and heat output.

There are two different types of home gas space heaters based on fuel – LPG and natural gas heaters.

There are two different types gas heaters based on venting – flued gas heaters and unflued gas heaters.

There are three types of gas heaters based on heating methodology, including convectors, radiant and radiant convectors.

♦ Gas Room Heaters for the Home – Portable Convector types of gas heaters: Unflued gas bayonet types of gas heaters for a house using a fan to distribute the heated air around the room

♦ Home Gas Space Heaters – Portable Radiant Convector  types of gas heaters: Unflued bayonet types of  gas room heaters for the home using radiant heat panel and distributes the heated air around the room with a fan

♦ Gas Heaters – Power Flued Gas Heaters  types of gas heaters: Flued gas heaters types of gas heaters (gas fixed flued heater) for home with one fan driving combustion gases out of the flue and the other fan to distribute the heated air around the room

♦ Gas Heaters – Console or Inbuilt Flued Gas Heaters  types of gas heaters: Flued gas heaters type of gas room heaters for the home (gas fixed flued heater) with a fan to distribute the heated air around the room

♦ Gas Heaters – Gas fire heaters, Gas Log Fires, Gas Fireplace  types of gas heaters: Decorative flued gas heaters.  Most are flued gas heaters types of gas room heaters for the home and almost all use a fan to distribute the heated air around the room

Some types of gas room heaters for the home have advantages over other types of heaters for a house, including electric space heaters, wood fireplaces and heat pumps, as well as the gas heater manufacturers.

Home Indoor Gas Space Heaters

Home Gas Space Heaters

There is an extensive range of types of gas room heaters for the home, all of which will keep you warm and cosy.

The best gas room heaters are high quality and very reliable.

Gas fire inserts fit into an existing fireplace so you get warmth for your living areas and a beautiful home highlight.

Home indoor gas space heaters provide heat to selected rooms of your home, as opposed to whole house ducted heating systems.

Home indoor gas space heaters come in different types of gas space heaters, including convectors, radiant-convectors, flued gas heaters and wall gas heaters for home.

Indoor gas space heaters are also an energy efficient way to heat your home.

Gas Consumption & Heat Output

For indoor types of gas heaters, gas input is expressed in MJ/hour. Heat output is measured in kW for gas room heaters for the home.

Generally speaking, greater gas input equals increased heat output, taking into account the relative energy efficiency ratings of the models being compared.

Star Ratings for Best Indoor Gas Heaters

Gas Heater Efficiency Comparison - Star Rating LabelGas heater manufacturers in Australia must have all indoor types of gas heaters for a house tested and labelled for energy efficiency Star Ratings.

Understanding what types of gas room heaters for the home and what ratings mean can save you lots of money.  The Star Rating is based on net heater efficiency.

For more details, please see Energy Efficiency & Star Ratings for Gas Heaters

Best Portable Gas Heater – Unflued Gas Heaters

Best Portable Gas Heater - Unflued Gas Heaters

When you compare types of gas heaters, the best portable gas room heaters for the home has a number of beneficial features including thermostatic control, twin programmable timers, remote controls, child lock function, tip over cut-off safety feature, and a solid warranty.

The best portable gas heater would also have 5.8 or 5.9 star energy rating, a high heat output in the 6.2 kW range and with either LPG or natural gas heaters for sale.

The best selling Rinnai Avenger 25 portable gas heaters have all of the aforementioned features and this Rinnai gas heater is arguably the best of the portable gas heaters.

To be best portable gas heater for home it must also fit your needs. In addition to capacity sizing and available features, weight and physical size must be considered, for ease of portability.

Emission levels can also vary, with some models of these types of gas heaters having about ½ the permissible amounts.

Portable gas heaters are very energy efficient types of gas heaters.

The typical Star Ratings for a portable gas heater is 5.8 or 5.9 Stars, meaning that they are about 90% efficient in converting the gas to usable heat.

These types of portable gas heaters require no installation, if you already have a gas heater bayonet fitting, and can be stored away when not in use.

Unflued gas heaters do emit some combustion gases into your home, with the maximum levels specified by government safety regulations.

Care should be taken if the family includes very young, unborn, elderly or individuals with some medical conditions, as they may be more sensitive to the emissions.

Gas room heaters for the home should not be used in sleeping rooms or very small rooms, like bathrooms.

However, for the majority of people, they are quite safe when you follow all of the manufacturer’s safety instructions, including providing adequate ventilation.

Portable heaters come in three sub-types of gas heaters, based on how they distribute the heat within the room:

Gas Radiant Heaters

Radiant gas heaterWhen you compare types of gas heaters for a house, radiant heaters warm you much like the sun.

Radiant type of  gas room heaters for the home allows specific spaces within an indoor area to be heated, primarily warming only the people and objects positioned in front of the unit.

They also come in smaller sizes for minor heating applications.

The advantage of radiant types of gas heaters is that they are generally the lowest cost option and require no electrical connection.

The disadvantages are an older style appearance and uneven heat distribution in the space being heated, with most of the warmth felt in the area directly in front of the heater.

Radiant gas heater manufacturers include Rinnai gas heater and Paloma gas heater.

Home Gas Space Heaters

Rinnai has a wide range of home gas space heaters that combine high quality and energy efficiency with cosy warmth and Rinnai reliability.

They offer radiant types of gas heaters that provide spot heating in front of the heater and fan assisted convection home gas space heaters.

Gas Convector (Convection) Gas Space Heaters

gas convector heaterWhen you compare types of gas room heaters for the home, gas convector (convection) types of gas heaters warm your space using convection or air movement.

Along with the gas burner, they incorporate a fan to help distribute the heat more evenly throughout the space.

Gas convectors are also sometimes referred to as Space Heaters.

The advantage of convectors is that these types of gas heaters also tend to have more advanced features like remote controls, timers, low emissions technology and electronic thermostatic controls, as well as a more contemporary appearance.

The disadvantages are that convectors are a bit more expensive than radiant types of gas heaters and they do require an electrical connection to power the fan.

Gas convector or space gas heater manufacturers include Rinnai gas heater, Braemar and Paloma.

Radiant Convectors

gas radiant convector heaterWhen you compare gas heaters for home, radiant convector type of gas heater combines the two methods of heat distribution.

They provide radiant heat to the area directly in front of the unit while distributing heat around the space using fan driven convection.

The advantage of these types of gas heaters for a house is that you get spot heating as well as space heating.

Pricing is in between radiant and convector models.

The disadvantages include the need for an electrical connections, lack of some of the more advanced features and more traditional styling.

Radiant convector gas heater manufacturers include Rinnai gas heater and Everdure.

Best Flued Gas Heaters for the Home

Flued Gas Heaters for the Home - Rinnai EnergySaverWhen you compare gas heaters, flued gas heaters for home are fixed in place by the flue (gas fixed flued heater).

They offer the warmth of gas heating with no indoor combustion emissions.

The term “fixed flued” refers to the fact that the combustion gases generated when the gas is burnt are directed out of your home by means of a fixed flue pipe through the wall or ceiling.

Traditional flued gas heaters have the flue pipe go straight up through your roof and are fixed in place (gas fixed flued heater).

Powered flued gas heaters give you many more design options, as the exhaust gas is fan forced horizontally or vertically, depending on the model.

Additional possibilities include 90° bends and the allowable flue length may also be longer.

This allows for wall outlets as well as roof exhausts.

In addition, with a conventional gas heater, the air used for combustion is drawn from within the room.

Flued gas heaters are also available in direct vent or balanced flue models draw the combustion air from outside your home, so there are less drafts and the fireplace is unaffected by closed doors, etc.

The amount drawn in is balanced with the exhaust sent out.

Flued gas heaters do cost more than portable gas heaters and must be installed by a gas fitter.

Flued gas heaters are not as energy efficient as portable gas heaters and can have a broad range of performance, with Star Ratings from 1.0 to 4.8 Stars.

Flued gas heaters come in three sub-types of gas heaters, based on installation options:

Flued Radiant Gas Heaters

flued radiant gas heaterWhen you compare gas heaters, radiant types of flued gas heaters are radiant convectors that incorporate a flue for the combustion emissions.

They provide radiant heat to the area directly in front of the unit while distributing heat around the space using fan driven convection.

The advantage of these types of flued gas heaters is that you get spot heating as well as space heating, with no indoor emissions.

They are also sized to fit into existing fireplace opening or as a stand-alone console.

The disadvantage of flued gas heaters is that they do not have power flues, so the installation options are a bit more limited.

Gas fitter installation is also required.  The styling is also a bit more dated.

Rinnai gas heater is the major gas heater manufacturer of these types of flued gas heaters.

Flued Gas Heater Power Flued

Power Flued Gas HeaterWhen you compare gas heaters, flued gas heaters with a power flue are convection types of flued gas heaters with a power driven flue.

The power flue provides more installation options.

The advantage is that you get more evenly distributed space heating, with no indoor emissions.

Styling is very contemporary and more advanced features like remote controls, timers, and electronic thermostatic controls are available.

The disadvantage is that power flued gas heaters models (gas fixed flued heater) tend to be the most expensive option and all require installation by a gas fitter.

Flued gas heaters with power flue manufacturers include Rinnai gas heater and Braemar.

Best Wall Furnace – Gas Wall Heaters

Gas Wall Furnace

When you compare gas heaters, the best wall furnace would probably be the best selling gas wall furnace made by Braemar.

The best wall heaters or best wall furnaces are types of flued gas heaters for home that is designed for an on-wall or in-wall installation.

From an operating cost point of view, the best wall furnace is gas, not electric. In most cases, these are being used as replacements for older gas wall furnaces, so the gas supply is already plumbed in.

Adaptor kits are also available for the best wall furnace to fit them as replacements for old style wall furnaces.

The advantage of these types of flued gas heaters as convection style heaters, is more evenly distributed heat.

The ability to retro-fit into existing openings is also a big plus.

The disadvantage is that wall furnaces can be a bit expensive and do require installation by a gas fitter.

Best wall furnace gas heater manufacturers include Braemar, for these types of flued gas heaters.

Gas Fireplace & Gas Log Fires

Gas Fireplace & Gas Log FiresGas Fireplace & Gas Log Fires are yet other types of flued gas heaters for home.

For more comprehensive information, please see Gas Fireplace for Your Home

The Best Indoor Gas Heater for Large Room

When you compare gas heaters, the best indoor type of gas heater for a large room is one with a high kW/hour rating, as that is the measure of heat output.

The best indoor gas heater for large room is not necessarily the one with the highest MJ rating, as MJ/hour is the measure of gas input.

Generally speaking, greater gas input equals increased heat output, taking into account the relative energy efficiency ratings of the models being compared.

Please read more about gas heater sizing below…

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