What Size Heater Do I Need?

Not all homes are the same size and not all heaters will be suitable for all homes. This brings about the question, what size heater do I need?

If you choose a heater that is too small, you won’t have a home that is toasty and warm in the cold weather.  If your heater is too big, you will be faced with bigger bills and could be putting your home at risk unnecessarily.

Having so many options can be overwhelming, we hope to make it a little easier to find which heater is best for your home and eliminate that question ‘what size heater do I need?’

Like many electrical appliances, there are star ratings and different kW which can seem like a completely different language. We will help you to decipher what they mean and how they can help you to find out which heater is best for your home.

Measuring Your Home

By measuring your home you will be able to find which kilowatt (kW) heater is best for your home.  You will also need to consider things like insulation, flooring, window coverings and ceiling heights.

What you will need to do is get a measuring tape and measure the length and width of each room you want to be heated.  Multiply the length and width of each room individually, giving you the area in square meters.

Add up the complete areas of the home you have measured. This will give you the total area of your home you wish to be heated.

This is not the end of using your math skills.  You will not need to figure out how many squares are in the area of your home you want to be heated.  This is different to the square metres, which we just calculated.

To find out how many squares there are you will need to divide the total square metres by 9.29.  For example, say your total square metres is 100, then you would divide 100 by 9.29, just like this:

100/9.29 = 10.76 Square

As a basic rule of thumb, 1 x Square = 1 x Kilowatts

“By knowing the square, you are then able to roughly calculate what size gas heater (kW) you will need to best heat your home.”

So What Size Heater Do I Need?

With the Brivis Heating Starpro series you will see SP followed by three numbers.  The SP stands for Star Pro Series. The first number is the star rating and the last two numbers are the kW.

So if you were to see an SP435 you would have a 4 star heater with 35 kW. These Starpro heaters comes in an all-encompassing variety that is sure to help when deciding which one is best for your home.

The selection comes in ranges that include: 15kw, 20kw, 30kw, 35kw just to mention a few.

For the example of the home above, a 15kW heater would be recommended. This however has not taken into consideration your insulation, flooring, window coverings, ceiling heights and any other factors which may affect the heating.

Contact a Plum Heating and Cooling consultant who will be able to measure up your home and quote you the best solution or option for your home.

What are Star Ratings?

Star ratings tell you the energy efficiency of the appliance you are purchasing. Simply put it tells you how efficient your system is in relation to the gas running cost.  The more stars, the more savings on running costs.

The rule of thumb is that with each star you will save around 10% on running costs for the appliance. The minimum rating for gas ducted heaters is 1 star with a maximum of 6 stars. If your heater is more efficient then they would use a ‘star rating equivalent’.

Click here for more info on Heating… or if you are still wondering ‘what size heater do I need’, then give us a call on (03)8360-9622 and we will be more than happy to assist.

Are you ready for a quote?

Whether you’ve made up your mind or need to have a more personalised chat with an expert, you can contact us at Plum Heating and Cooling. As experts in climate control we can help work out and implement the best cooling option for your situation.