Desk and office heaters for cold Canadian workdays

Built for a working day

• Under 30 dB, so your microphone does not pick it up on calls
• Warm in three to five minutes when you start work
• Thermostat holds a steady temperature through the afternoon
• Timer stops it running after you log off
• Compact enough to sit under or beside the desk

Cheaper than heating an empty house

Working from home used to mean paying to heat the entire house from nine to five. Heating just the room you work in, for the hours you work, is a fraction of that — and you can leave the central thermostat where the rest of the household likes it.

Also works in a small commercial office

Shared offices, reception desks, salon stations, studio corners and workshop benches all have the same problem: one cold spot in a building heated for the average. A plug-in ceramic unit fixes the spot without touching the building system.

Desk heater safety

• Plug straight into a wall outlet, never an extension cord or power bar
• Keep a metre of clear space in front of the grille
• Never cover the unit or use it to dry clothes
• Use the 1–12 hour timer instead of leaving it running unattended
• Overheat cut-out and tip-over shut-off do the rest automatically

Why home offices get cold

Most Canadian home offices are converted spare rooms, dens or basement corners — spaces the heating system was never balanced for. They are also occupied by one person sitting still for eight hours, which is the situation in which you notice every degree.

Running the furnace harder from nine to five to keep one desk warm is the most expensive way to solve it. A thermostat-controlled heater beside the desk costs a fraction of that.

What it costs over a working month

A typical workday needs the heater on for four to six hours, though the thermostat will idle the element for much of it. At 0.75 kWh per hour of use, eight hours a day five days a week works out at about 120 kWh a month.

That is roughly $9 in Quebec, $18 in Ontario and $23 in Nova Scotia — less than most people spend on coffee in a week, and considerably less than heating the whole house all day.

Setting it up at a desk

• Place it on the floor to one side of the desk, pointing across your legs rather than straight at them
• Keep it a metre from paper, curtains and cable runs
• Plug directly into a wall outlet — never into the power bar your computer uses
• Use the remote from your chair rather than reaching down mid-call
• Set the timer to your working hours so it never runs into the evening