Smart Thermostats vs. Electric Heaters

A smart thermostat gives you intuitive, complete control over your heating and can improve your home’s energy efficiency. Meanwhile, standalone electric heaters are also popular due to their portability. But what's better: a smart thermostat or an electric heater? Today we pit them against each other and find out the winner for you!

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The Set-Up Process

Thanks to its wireless design, smart thermostats by Wiser are incredibly easy to set up. The UK standard wall plate, as well as the included clip and stand, makes the Step-by-Step Process effortless. You can also find a Wiser-Approved Installer Here for additional support.  

However, many electric heaters can work straight out of the box. And, whilst some smart heaters may require a few additional steps, the plug-in-and-go nature of these products is part of what makes them appealing. If you want a new product to heat your home, a new electric heater is arguably the fastest way to get going.

Winner: Electric Heater

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Comfort & Accuracy

Electric heaters often have temperature settings similar to those found on traditional thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs). They usually use numbers to represent different heat levels.

Whilst this is functional, it doesn’t compare to the accuracy provided by smart thermostats. In the same way that Smart TRVs improve on their traditional counterparts, smart thermostats offer more precise temperatures than electric heaters due to App Control. This allows you to set your home’s heating to the exact comfort levels you desire anytime, anywhere. Some smart heaters do offer this feature, but the cost often reduces the value that app control can provide.

Winner: Smart Thermostats

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Energy Efficiency

Smart heating is renowned for its Energy Saving Capabilities. In fact, given that around 50% of home energy consumption goes towards heating and hot water, Wiser systems can reduce your bills by up to £200* a year. Simply put, this makes smart thermostats one of the most energy-efficient and greenest ways to manage your home’s heating. 

And, whilst electric heaters can be useful for heating one or two rooms for a short period of time, sustained use is far less efficient. For heating the same amount of space, an electric heater can cost more than twice as much as managing that space with your central heating system, even when using the most efficient electric heater models.

Winner: Smart Thermostats

Long-Term Service

If you’re getting your Boiler Serviced when Recommended, smart thermostats and heating controls can last for many years. The technology usually also receives ongoing over-the-air updates to its software, ensuring it continues to run smoothly and adapts to future changes in heating systems. At Wiser, our dedicated engineering team continues to develop and deliver updates that improve efficiency, user experience and system compatibility - such as the recently-introduced heat pump setting - so you can be safe in the knowledge that Wiser will deliver comfort, convenience and long-term energy savings in the future ahead.

This should eclipse the lifespan of an electric heater. Given these are larger products that will probably be moved several times a year with the changing seasons, wear-and-tear and damage to parts after a couple of years are far more likely.

Winner: Smart Thermostats

Overall Winner: The Smart Thermostat

And there you have it! You can Check out our Smart Room Thermostats Here to read more about their features and benefits.

*Research by BEAMA and Salford University 2021, when upgrading a basic Class I thermostat to a smart thermostat, with multi-room heating provided by TRVs, and enabling Wiser’s energy-saving modes.