SP
Sally P.✓ Verified customer
★★★★★
Just perfect
Small office with a door that gets freezing because admin keeps the building way too low. Plugged this into the outlet above my desk and now I'm warm without anyone knowing it's there. Love it.
Home · Heating · First Person
I've Repaired Furnaces for 22 Years. Mine Is Set to 62°F All Winter and My Family Isn't Cold. Here's the Trick Nobody in My Trade Tells You.
You're paying to heat 2,000 square feet so you can sit in 150 of them. Your furnace doesn't know which room you're in. This does.
I've been in more basements than anyone you know. I fix furnaces, boilers and heat pumps for a living, and every January I walk into houses where people are paying $300, $400, $500 a month to be warm — and the house is still cold in the rooms they actually use.
45%
of the average US home's energy bill is heating. It's the single biggest line item in the house — more than lighting, cooking, water heating and every appliance combined.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Saver — Home Heating Systems
1
You heat the whole house to use one room.Your furnace has one setting: everything. Bedroom at 2 p.m. when nobody's in it. Living room at 3 a.m. when everyone's asleep upstairs. Hallways. The guest room. You're paying to warm air nobody is standing in — which is most of the air, most of the time.
2
Turning the thermostat down works. People just can't stand it.The Department of Energy's own number: set it back 7–10°F for 8 hours a day and you save about 10% a year on heating. The problem isn't the math. It's that 62° feels miserable in the one room you're sitting in — so people crank it back up by the second week of January.U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Saver — Thermostats
3
The old space heater is the thing that scares me.Space heaters are involved in roughly 1 in 3 home heating fires, and almost all of those are the same picture: a glowing coil heater with a long cord, knocked over on a carpet, left running. That's not an argument against heating a room. It's an argument against that heater.National Fire Protection Association, Home Heating Fires report
"Heat the person, not the house. Every tech knows it. Nobody says it, because your furnace is how we get paid."
What I plug in instead
The fix is called zone heating and commercial buildings have done it forever: keep the big system low, and add heat only where there are people. At home that always meant a floor heater with a cord — the thing from fact #3. What changed is this: a small ceramic heater that plugs straight into the wall outlet. No cord, no floor, nothing to knock over.
The one I use is called Hotjak. 800 watts, ceramic plates, a thermostat, a remote and a timer. It heats a room of about 130 square feet — a bedroom, a bathroom, a home office — in about five minutes, holds the temperature you set, and shuts itself off if it overheats or gets pulled from the wall.
1Plug it inAny outlet in the room you're actually using.
2Set the temperatureTouch panel or remote. Timer if you want it off by morning.
3Turn the thermostat downThe furnace idles. You're warm anyway.
Order Now Plugs into any outlet · 30-day money-back guarantee · Ships from the USA
★★★★★ 4.6 · 9,174 verified reviews · 94% would recommend
My house, last winter
Furnace at 62. One Hotjak in the master bedroom on a timer (6 p.m. to 7 a.m.), one in the bathroom (20 minutes before showers), one in the home office during the day. Two kids, a dog, a drafty 1960s split-level in Minnesota.
January 2025 — furnace at 70°F, no zone heat$387.40
January 2026 — furnace at 62°F + 3 Hotjaks$241.15
Difference−$146.25 / month
Gas + electric combined. Three heaters at 800W, roughly 5 hours a day each at $0.17/kWh, cost about $62 of that $241. Your numbers depend on your climate, fuel and house.
The thing I didn't expect: the house is more comfortable. The rooms we use are warm. The rooms we don't are cool, and nobody notices because nobody's in them.
Why this one and not the $20 coil heater
- No cord, no floor. It lives in the outlet. There's nothing to trip on, knock over, or leave on a rug.
- Ceramic plates, not glowing coils. Ceramic heats fast, holds heat, and the housing stays cool to the touch.
- Overheat cutoff and kill switch. Pull it from the wall or let it get too hot, and it's off.
- Real thermostat. Set 68. It heats to 68 and holds there. It's not "high" and "low."
- Timer and remote. Warm bathroom before you get up. Off after you fall asleep.
- Antimicrobial filter. It's moving air anyway; it may as well clean it.
Which rooms, how many
One heater per room you spend real time in. For most homes that's three: where you sleep, where you wash, where you sit. Bigger house or a basement rec room? Four. Running a whole floor or a cabin? Six.
Plug-in heater vs. the alternatives
| Hotjak | Central heating | Coil space heater | Oil radiator | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heats a room in minutes | ~5 min | Whole house, slowly | Yes | 30+ min |
| Heats only where you are | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cord on the floor | None | — | Yes | Yes |
| Thermostat + timer | Both | Thermostat | Hi / Lo | Dial |
| Cool-touch housing | Yes | — | Glowing | Hot |
| Takes up floor space | None | — | Yes | A lot |
| Running cost / hour | ~14¢ | $1–3 | ~26¢ | ~26¢ |
9,174 people and counting
4.6
★★★★★
9,174 verified reviews · 94% would recommend
JN
Jimmy N.✓ Verified customer
★★★★★
Heats the room well
Swapped the big space heater in our bathroom for this to free up counter space. Typical full bath, heats it fine. Shares the outlet with a power strip, no problem. Great little heater.
MJ
Marilyn J.✓ Verified customer
★★★★★
Finally warm in my own home
Old house, terrible heating, main bathroom always freezing. This warmed it up so fast and so well we got a few more for the garage and basement. No more three layers to brush my teeth.
JK
Jessie K.✓ Verified customer
★★★★★
Worth the money
I live in a trailer and needed something to keep the chill off between furnace cycles. Perfect for the small bathroom and bedroom. Bought two and I'd gladly buy another.
PB
Peter B.✓ Verified customer
★★★★★
No more ugly heater on the floor
Bathroom with no duct. Pretty quiet, turns off when it hits the temp I set. No cord hanging off the wall. Very happy.
JW
Jennifer W.✓ Verified customer
★★★★☆
Take it to work
Under my desk at the office. Good heat without being too much, and it has real temperature control instead of one setting. Four stars because I wish the remote range were a bit longer. Colleague is ordering one.
Where to get it
Hotjak sells direct and is running winter pricing — the per-unit price drops hard with the bundle. The 3-pack, which is what most homes need, costs about a third of one January furnace bill from the table above.
Ready to order?
Hotjak sells direct through its official order page. Choose a 2-, 3-, 4- or 6-pack there — one heater per room you actually use — and the winter discount is applied automatically.
- 800W ceramic, thermostat, timer and remote
- Plugs straight into the outlet — no cord, no floor
- Fast US shipping with tracking
- 30-day money-back guarantee
You'll choose your package and see current pricing on the official order page.
Questions customers ask me
How big a room will it heat?
About 130 square feet (12 m²) — a bedroom, bathroom, home office or nursery. For a large living room, use two on opposite walls, or keep the furnace a little higher in that one room.
How much does it cost to run?
800 watts. At the US average of about 17¢ per kWh, that's roughly 14¢ an hour at full power — and with the thermostat, it cycles off once the room is at temperature. Five hours a day for a month is about $20. Compare that to what your furnace costs to raise the whole house 8 degrees.
Is it safe to leave on? What about kids and pets?
The housing stays cool to the touch; only the front grille gets warm. It has overheat protection, a kill switch if it's pulled from the outlet, and a timer so it doesn't run all night. Like any heater, give the front some clearance and don't hang a towel on it.
Will it overload my outlet?
800W is well within a standard 15A US circuit — less than a hair dryer. Plug it into a wall outlet directly rather than an extension cord.
Is it loud?
A low hum, like brown noise. It won't wake a sleeping person or compete with the TV.
Is this a scam? It's cheaper than a brand-name space heater.
It's a plug-in ceramic heater sold direct instead of through retail. Orders ship from a US warehouse, process through a standard encrypted checkout (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, PayPal, Apple Pay), and carry a 30-day refund. With 9,000+ verified reviews, it's been through more winters than most.
How long does shipping take?
Orders ship from a US warehouse within 24 hours on business days and typically arrive in 3–7 business days with tracking.
The bottom line
Your furnace is the most expensive thing in your house to run, and it's running for rooms you're not in. Turn it down. Put heat where the people are. It's what every tech does at home, and what none of us says on the job.
Do it before the January bill, not after.
Order Now Plugs into any outlet · 30-day money-back guarantee · Ships from the USA
★★★★★ 4.6 · 9,174 verified reviews