Box Fans, Space Heaters and Portable Air Conditioners

Fans move air, heaters add heat, and an air conditioner takes heat and moisture out of a room. The everyday buys are a box fan for a room, a table fan for where you sit, and a heater sized to either you or the room. The mistake people make is buying a heater for the whole room when they only need to keep themselves warm at a desk, or the other way around.

Box fans and table fans

A box fan is the workhorse: it sits in a window or on the floor and moves a lot of air across a room. WBC carries the 20-inch Lasko three-speed box fan, a 22-inch three-speed white steel box fan, and the PowerZone F-1022, a compact 10-inch three-speed box fan for a smaller space. Pick the size for the room; three speeds let you turn it down for sleeping.

For the spot where you sit, a table fan puts the air on you. The oscillating three-speed table fan sweeps side to side to cover more of the room, and the 14-inch directional three-speed fan aims where you point it. An adjustable angle or height is worth having when your chair or work position moves around. The PowerZone handheld fan is the one to carry with you.

A fan doesn’t cool the air; it cools you by moving air across your skin. Keep the blades clean, since dust buildup makes the motor work harder. Unplug the fan before you clean it.

Drying out a room: the air mover

After a leak or a flood, you need air across wet floors and walls, not a breeze for comfort. The Bissell BigGreen Rental air mover is built for that: 1,050 CFM, three speeds and four positions to aim air low across a floor or up a wall. Around Libby, after the December 2025 flood, drying a space out properly before closing it back up is the job that matters.

Space heaters: warm yourself or warm the room

Decide first whether you’re heating yourself or the room.

Heating yourself. The PowerZone HT1193 ceramic desk heater draws 350 watts. That’s personal heat: it puts warmth on you at a desk or a workbench without the load of a room heater. A chilly office corner in an otherwise heated house is exactly what it’s for.

Heating the room. Most heaters sold for a whole room draw about 1,500 watts. A common rule of thumb is 10 watts per square foot, so a 1,500-watt heater suits about 150 square feet. Treat that as a starting point: a room with cold window glass and drafts needs more than a sheltered interior room the same size.

Heater	Draw	Job
PowerZone HT1193 ceramic desk heater	350 watts	Personal warmth at a desk or bench
Typical whole-room heater	About 1,500 watts	Roughly a 150-square-foot room

Within room heaters, the type changes how it feels. Ceramic and other fan-forced convection heaters warm the air quickly. Radiant heaters warm you and the things in front of them, which suits sitting in one spot. Oil-filled radiators heat slowly and keep giving off heat after they shut off; they’re quiet because there’s no fan.

Heaters of equal wattage use equal electricity for equal running time, whatever the cabinet looks like. A space heater only saves money if you turn the furnace or baseboards down elsewhere; adding one on top of normal heating just adds to the bill. Keep the cooler rooms well above freezing to protect the pipes. That matters in a Flathead Valley winter, where the average low is 16°F.

Wall heaters and baseboard heat

For a permanent electric heater, the Cadet fixed-watt wall register mounts in the wall and heats the room it’s in. Electric wall heaters usually combine an element, a reflector and a fan, and they’re normally installed in interior walls because an exterior wall complicates the insulation. Wiring one in is electrician’s work.

Use a space heater safely

Buy one with tip-over shutoff, overheat shutoff and a UL, ETL or CSA certification label. Then:

• Plug it straight into a wall outlet: never an extension cord or power strip, and nothing else on that outlet.
• Set it on a hard, level, nonflammable surface, at least three feet from anything that can burn, and keep kids and pets outside that three feet.
• Turn it off when you leave the room or go to bed. A timer doesn’t make it safe to sleep with it running.
• Keep the cord out from under rugs and furniture, and don’t use a heater with a frayed cord.
• During winter renovation work, keep it away from drop cloths, paint and gasoline.

Replacing a bath fan motor

When a bathroom exhaust fan dies, you can often replace just the motor. WBC carries a 50-CFM replacement bath fan motor. Match it by the fan’s model number: on many Broan-NuTone fans, you release the grille by pulling it down about two inches and squeezing the mounting springs, and the model label sits in the corner nearest the outlet. On some fans the number is stamped into the motor plate.

Portable air conditioners

A fan won’t do it on the hottest days; an air conditioner actually takes the heat and moisture out. Portable units are for rooms where a window or wall unit won’t go. They come in two kinds. A single-hose unit exhausts room air outside, which pulls warm replacement air in through the gaps around doors and windows and makes it work harder. A dual-hose unit uses a second hose to bring in outside air to cool itself, so it isn’t pulling that replacement air through the room. Don’t oversize it: a unit that’s too big cools the room before it takes out the humidity, and the room ends up clammy.

The Pick

Buy the 20-inch Lasko or the 22-inch three-speed box fan to move air through a room, and the oscillating table fan for where you sit. For personal warmth at a desk, buy the 350-watt PowerZone ceramic desk heater; for a room, size a heater at about 10 watts per square foot and insist on tip-over and overheat shutoff. Use the Bissell BigGreen Rental air mover to dry a wet room, and replace a dead bath fan’s motor by its model number.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the best space heater?

The one that matches the job. For warmth at a desk, a small personal heater like the 350-watt PowerZone ceramic desk heater. For a room, a heater of about 1,500 watts covers roughly 150 square feet. Pick convection for quick room heat, radiant if you sit in one spot, or oil-filled if you want quiet, steady heat.

How many watts do you need for a space heater?

A rough rule is 10 watts per square foot, so 1,500 watts for about 150 square feet. Drafty rooms and cold windows need more. A personal desk heater needs far less; the PowerZone desk heater draws 350 watts.

Does a space heater use a lot of electricity?

A 1,500-watt heater is a substantial load, and heaters of equal wattage use equal energy over the same running time. It only saves money when you turn the main heat down in the rest of the house. Use the lowest setting and the thermostat to keep the draw down.

Can you leave a space heater on all night?

No. Turn a portable space heater off before you go to sleep or leave the room, and unplug it when you’re not using it. A timer or thermostat doesn’t replace being there.

Can you plug a space heater into an extension cord?

No. Plug it directly into a wall outlet, with no extension cord or power strip and no other devices on the same outlet. Keep the cord out from under rugs and furniture.