Can I use a gas heater indoors?

The short answer is - yes. Indoor gas heaters can be used indoors, and are designed to do so. There are some health risks when it comes to using a gas heater, which we’ll get to in a minute, so if you do decide to use a gas heater to heat your home, it’s important to read up on carbon monoxide poisoning, ensure your home is well ventilated and that the gas heater is fitted and maintained professionally.

Gas used to be a very popular choice for heaters, as the price of gas was more affordable than electricity. These days, the price of gas has been rising, so it’s no longer the obvious affordable heater choice it once was.

There are a number of health risks associated with using an indoor gas heater. The top one - carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no smell and cannot be seen, so without some sort of carbon monoxide monitoring system, it’s completely undetectable. It escapes out of the gas heater, and because it is poisonous, it can cause some serious health issues, and can even cause death.

Nitrogen Dioxide is another pollutant that can escape gas heaters and into the air you’re breathing, and like carbon monoxide, it’s odourless and invisible. If you’ve got asthma, you’re more likely to be susceptible to the effects of nitrogen dioxide.

There are ways to mitigate this risk, though.

There’s a few things you can do to help ensure you’re using your gas heater as safely as possible.

• Keep the room you’re heating well ventilated. Internal doors should be open and make sure any room vents are not blocked.
• Never use an unflued gas heater in the bathroom or where you sleep.
• Always hire a professional to service your unflued gas heater annually.
• Ensure your gas heater is installed by a professional. 
• Purchase and install a carbon monoxide detection alarm
• Use an unflued gas heater sparingly - only when you really need to.
• Ensure your heater is in good working order - broken heaters release higher amounts of pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide into the air.
• Look at the safety features of your gas heater - does the gas switch off automatically if the pilot flame goes out?

We’ve rounded out our top picks for gas heaters, so you can see how they compare.

There’s no ambiguity here - you cannot use a gas heater designed for use outdoors, inside your house. You’ll often see outdoor gas heaters in beer gardens of pubs and restaurants, or people’s backyards - they’re tall with a gas element up top to disperse heat downwards. They’re designed to be used in an open-air environment - aka outdoors - to disperse the pollutants. Using them indoors increases the risk of a poisonous level of carbon monoxide.

Save outdoor gas heaters for the outdoors.

Because carbon monoxide is odourless and invisible, it’s impossible to know if your home has dangerous levels of it without having some sort of alarm system. To make it even more complex, carbon monoxide poisoning doesn’t have any clear, specific symptoms, and often presents as other illnesses like the flu or food poisoning.

Symptoms include:

• Headache
• Vomiting
• Chest pain
• Dizziness
• Shortness of breath
• Muscle pain
• Skin flushing
• Weakness

If you suspect you or someone in your home might have carbon monoxide poisoning, it’s advised to turn off all your gas appliances, ventilate the area by opening windows, vacate the property and call 000.

The good news is, gas heaters are not the only way to heat your home. There’s a number of options on the market, including oil and electric heaters.

Electric heaters: Electric heaters come in a few forms, including fan and radiant. Radiant heaters aren’t very effective at heating a room. Fan heaters, once you turn them on, get the job done quickly. Electric fan heaters can also distribute heat evenly, though they can be noisy when running. They often have a safety trip switch too, so they’ll turn off automatically if they tip over.

Oil heaters: Oil heaters are column shaped heaters that circulate oil internally to heat a room. They retain heat well, are quiet when they run, don’t dry out the air, and the risk of a fire is low. They do however take a long time to heat a room, and aren’t very efficient at heating large spaces. They’re better for rooms or small studios. They are hot to touch when on, though, which can present a burn risk.