Fans and heaters

Fans and heaters shared a shelf because both move comfort around a room without being a central system. They are still different loads.

Fans

A box fan is a square propeller in a window or a doorway. Pointed out, it dumps hot air if another window can let air in. Pointed in, it pressurizes the room and pushes air out the other openings. A window fan with two directions does the same job with a shroud. Ceiling fans move air across skin. They do not lower the thermostat reading in an empty room in any useful way.

Plug-in heat

Many portable heaters are built to draw close to what a 15-amp circuit can carry. A second heater, a microwave, or a hair dryer on that same circuit trips the breaker. The safer pattern is one heater on a circuit you know is not shared with the kitchen. Tip-over switches and overheat cutouts are worth checking for on the spec line. A heater with a glowing element needs clearance from curtains. A fan-forced ceramic box needs less clearance and still needs an unblocked intake. Combustion heaters that burn kerosene or propane indoors are a different product and were not this row.