Electric heaters: Far from being a 'last resort', electric heaters are often the cheaper option to hire (compared to gas and oil heaters); they may be a little more expensive to run, but they can be ideal for smaller applications and requirements where big oil or gas heating units would simply be too great in size.
Environments such as offices, shops and care homes, etc., would use smaller electric heaters, while larger electrical heating units would be best for places like refineries, pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, laboratories, and also areas where paint spraying (or similar) is being carried out.
Gas-fired & oil-fired heaters: these are best used at remote sites or sites with little available power load; such environments would be unable to sustain the large power requirement big electrical units need. Also, in areas where there is a necessity for great volumes of air movement, electrical units would not have the capacity to achieve sufficient air delivery, and so gas or oil-fired heaters would be the perfect option.
Gas and oil heaters can either be direct-fired or indirect-fired.
Direct-fired heaters: these are highly efficient, compact, robust, fully portable heaters that are best for places that need large volumes of warm air, such as factories, warehouses, sports halls, loading bays and farm buildings.
However, in a sealed environment, direct-fired heaters could cause fume problems; this is why a specialist portable heater hire company will insist on first carrying out a site survey by qualified and experienced staff (prior to equipment supply). The main issue will be ventilation, as direct-fired heaters deliver air that is carrying carbon from the spent fuel.
Also, direct-fired heating is not appropriate for drying materials and substances in places like construction sites, as the amount of moisture delivered to the area (as a bi-product of the combustion process) would slow down the drying process.
Direct-fired heaters are much more efficient than their in-direct counterparts, in fact direct-fired heaters are generally referred to as 100% efficient (based on net calorific value of the fuel) because all the heat generated is discharged into the area to be heated.
Indirect-fired heaters: these are sophisticated, reliable and highly efficient heaters that are most suitable for places where there is limited ventilation; they will deliver huge volumes of clean, dry, fume-free heat safely and economically.
Indirect-fired heaters are ideal hired heaters for shops, showrooms, marquees, exhibition halls, food preparation areas and factories - virtually anywhere people need to keep warm.
Indirect-fired heaters can also deliver large volumes of warm air via ducting (up to 40m); an option not available with direct-fired heating. This is particularly useful at construction sites as the heating plant can be located outside the building, and flexible ducting can then be fed into any floor level (up to four floors).
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