Electric heating is any process in which electrical energy is converted to heat. Although they all use the same physical principle to generate heat, electric heaters differ in the way they deliver that heat to the environment.

Radiative heaters directly warm people and objects in the room, rather than warming the air.

Convection heaters heat the air next to it by convection, hot air is less dense than cool air, and so it rises allowing more cool air to flow in to take its place.

Fan heaters are a variety of convection heater that includes an electric fan to speed up the airflow. This reduces the thermal resistance between the heating element and the surroundings faster than passive convection, allowing heat to be transferred more quickly.

Storage heating stores heat in clay bricks, then releases it during the day when required.

Heat pumps uses an electrically-driven compressor to operate a refrigeration cycle that extracts heat energy from the outdoor air or from the ground or ground water, and upgrades its temperature to a level high enough to use for space heating.