GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brrrr. It's about to get cold overnight. A space heater is a common option. Here are two main takeaways to keep your family safe:
Always plug the heater into the wall. Never use a power strip or an extension cord. Neither one can handle the heater voltage and could catch fire.
Make sure you have a safe space, that's three feet from your couch, a bed, and curtains. Chances are, your heater is too close.
"If you are using a space heater to stay warm at night we always encourage you to shut the door to that room that you're in just so that space heater may not need to run quite as long," said Ryan Chambers, Gibsonville Fire Department.
Always shut the heater off when you leave the room. Like everything else, not all space heaters are created equal.
"You need to consider if just want to warm yourself up or if are you trying to heat the entire room. Our tests have found not all models do both well," said Paul Hope, Consumer Reports.
Consumer Reports tests heaters by using a mannequin equipped with four temperature sensors to record and measure how well a heater can warm a person. Testers also assess how well a heater can warm up a standard-sized room..which they see as 12" by 17".
2 Wants To Know checked the top three picks from consumer reports for this year and they're all within two points of each other.
You can spend a lot of money or not. Here are the ratings from CR.
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