Are Space Heaters Safe To Leave On All Night?

As the days grow colder, people have looked for the perfect solution to the problem of how to keep warm without burning up all of their money in the process. This is where measures like turning on an oven, leaving its door open and space heaters come into play. While the former solution is only really advisable as a short term solution, the concerns regarding space heaters require a bit more analysis.

The short answer to this question is that it is not safe to leave a space heater on for the entire night. While you might decide to leave it on for a few hours, the problem with that is you might nod off or feel so unwilling to get up from sleeping that you wind up with a very dangerous problem to preemptively wake you up.

Why Are Space Heaters Dangerous To Leave On All Night?

There are several reasons why this idea is a bad one.

FIRE!

This is likely the priority worry for anyone who owns a space heater. You wind up with a fire, likely when you’re fast asleep, and it spreads beyond the point of salvation by the time you are awake and fully aware of your circumstances. Even if you do your best to stop your space heater from tipping over or setting anything on fire, you have not eliminated the risk of a blaze-up.

You may wonder what possible thing could still cause a fire with an active space heater and the answer is the space heater itself. Either the device or its circuitry could overheat, leading to a fire. What’s worse is that you will likely be unable to detect such a fire until it is too late.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Even if you can mitigate the fire risks of a space heater, there are other health concerns to be mindful of. Carbon monoxide is naturally generated by space heaters and can lead to several problems without proper ventilation in the room said space heater is placed within. As carbon monoxide is a serious threat to the health of everyone in the residence, it is vital that you have a working carbon monoxide sensor in place.

Dehydration

While winters can be challenging to stay warm within, overusing a space heater carries risks beyond the obvious fire and CO issues. Excess use of a space heater can dry out your skin and nasal passages, leading to an impaired level of health that makes things perfect for all sorts of bacterial infections to take hold. While not as severe a bacterial infection, dried nasal passages are also a great way to develop nose bleeds.

Do Space Heaters Come On Timers?

There is a short answer and a long answer to this question. The short answer is “Yes, they do.” The long answer is “it depends on the particular model.

While cheaper models of space heater are just made to heat up an area, the higher-end models will likely come with some sort of auto-turn-off mechanism.

Can I Put My Space Heater On A Timer?

If there is a market for heaters with self-initiated power-down features, then a timer is a pretty good investment While such devices are usually marketed to people concerned with a break-in, where they can be programmed to start up enough devices to convey the illusion of an occupied home, they can work just as well in stopping the flow of electricity to the space heater after a period of time chosen by you.

The one major concern with using an external timer is the wattage; you need to ensure that your outlet can handle 1500 watts.

Best Space Heater With A 7-Hour Timer

How Close Can My Space Heater Be To My Bed?

You want to place your space heater as far from your bed as you can manage, ideally in a corner free of any sort of flammable clutter. Over 54 of deaths resulting from space heater fires entailed objects that combusted due to their close proximity to a heat source.

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How Can You Make A Space Heater Safer?

There are several things to look out for when it comes to space heater safety.

• Timer feature.
• Tip-over protections. This means that the device will automatically power down if a sensor, likely a gyroscope, notices that the heater tipped over. This is especially useful if you have rambunctious children or dogs.
• Certifications. Look for the logos of Underwriters Laboratory (UL), Intertek (ETL) or Canadian Standards Association (CSA).
• Custom Thermostat. This feature means that the device will only activate when it detect the temperature falls below a temperature that you feel is tolerable.

While all of these are features you should look for when buying a space heater, there are several external things you can do to improve safety conditions.

• Keep the heater away from anything that could burn up with the sort of heat that a space heater is capable of generating. This means placing the heater at least 3 feet away from anything flammable, including the carpeting. If you cannot place your heater on tile, wood, or something else free of fibers, find something like a cinder block or some other sturdy surface wide enough to keep the heater from moving.
• Only keep it plugged in when you are using it. This stops it from being a fire hazard and also saves you money on your power bill; most electrical devices continue to use a small amount of electricity when they are plugged in but turned off.
• Install and confirm the usefulness of fire alarms and carbon monoxide sensors.
• Double check the wiring for any fraying. You should also check in to make sure that none of your pets have taken to chewing on it. Bittering agents exist to discourage pets from putting something like a space heater’s power cable into their mouth.
• Do not rely upon it as your primary heating source.
• Pay attention to any product recalls for your particular make, model or brand of space heater.
• Only use it when you are in the room.
• Only use it for warmth, never for drying clothes. Get fiber hot enough and you will be more concerned with a fire than any cold, soggy garment. You will also probably lose whatever garment you tried to dry out.
• NEVER use a broken or decades-old space heater.

To Wrap Everything Up

Space heaters are a wonderful and economical way of keeping a room warm. They are also more than equipped with ways to cause harm to your health, your possessions and even the roof over your head. Fortunately, there several things you can do to reduce the risks of a blaze.

Get a space heater that features a built-in timer or get an external one for the outlet you plan to plug the heater into. Keep the heater as far from your bed as you can manage. Look over the list of tips for making your heater as safe as possible.

Lastly, optimize our safety by minimizing how often you use the space heater in the first place. Leave the heater going in your bedroom for no more than two or three hours before you plan to go to bed, being sure to always be present in the room while the heater is doing its job. When you are ready to hit the sack, turn off the heater, slip on an extra layer of warm clothing, crawl into bed and head off to sleep as someone warm and content that his home will not burn down because of the season’s cold temperatures.