It's that time of the year again. Where deceptive and outright scam on electrical heater floods the newspaper and magazines.
Let's set one thing straight..
All electrical resistance heater are 100% efficient. That is, all the electicity used is converted to heat. Your 1500 watts hair dryer is just as efficient as a 1500 watts Edenpure heater.
You can buy good electrical heater from Home Depot, Lowes, or WalMart for under $100.
Message edited by: ZenNUTS on 2009-10-03 12:09:30 CDT
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Thank you for posting this - there is just a few more things to note. To heat an area with electricity is usually about 5 times the cost of heating with pipeline natural gas, about 4 times the cost of heating with oil, and about 3 times the cost of heating with propane. Insulating a room from drafts can also reduce heating costs greatly.
Good post! Seems like every year, there are discussions about what type of electric heater to buy - oil filled vs. ceramic forced air vs. radiant and so on. Might as well drop a couple tips here now...
Oil filled is best for nice gradual heat, and is very safe since the radiator temperature of the unit is never really hot. Perfect for adding extra warmth to a childs bedroom.
Radiant, which is getting rare, is great for spot heating as you feel the heat radiating from the unit. Great for the garage or the "mud room" - not great around kids.
Forced air ceramic and nichrome heaters are by far the most popular. The appeal of a ceramic element isn't what it used to be, and upgraded safety requirements for nichrome (good old resistance wire) have made them safer than they used to be. These are nicest for safe short term warming of, say a bathroom in the morning or a home office/den that is used only in the evening. Nice general purpose type of heater. Also cheapest to buy - but watch out for the ultra cheapies as you'll be lucky to get a season out of them.
thekid72 said:Good post! Seems like every year, there are discussions about what type of electric heater to buy - oil filled vs. ceramic forced air vs. radiant and so on. Might as well drop a couple tips here now...
Oil filled is best for nice gradual heat, and is very safe since the radiator temperature of the unit is never really hot. Perfect for adding extra warmth to a childs bedroom.
Radiant, which is getting rare, is great for spot heating as you feel the heat radiating from the unit. Great for the garage or the "mud room" - not great around kids.
Forced air ceramic and nichrome heaters are by far the most popular. The appeal of a ceramic element isn't what it used to be, and upgraded safety requirements for nichrome (good old resistance wire) have made them safer than they used to be. These are nicest for safe short term warming of, say a bathroom in the morning or a home office/den that is used only in the evening. Nice general purpose type of heater. Also cheapest to buy - but watch out for the ultra cheapies as you'll be lucky to get a season out of them.
great information...
I just rebuilt our screened in porch into a sun room...and I'm looking at the different ways to heat it...seems like radiant heat would be best, for the little bit we'll be looking at using it....
ZenNUTS said:It's that time of the year again. Where deceptive and outright scam on electrical heater floods the newspaper and magazines.
Let's set one thing straight..
All electrical resistance heater are 100% efficient. That is, all the electicity used is converted to heat. Your 1500 watts hair dryer is just as efficient as a 1500 watts Edenpure heater.
You can buy good electrical heater from Home Depot, Lowes, or WalMart for under $100.
Great statement but needs further disclosure.
Using AC "in reverse" for heating (where climate allows) may achieve more than 100% efficiency as AC running in reverse cools down outside air in theory leading to more heat getting inside than you get from the power-grid. That said the difference may be negated or even reversed by the effect of pushing warmed air out of the building via downdraught. Needless to say neither of the above collers use these principles.
jolma said:Thank you for posting this - there is just a few more things to note. To heat an area with electricity is usually about 5 times the cost of heating with pipeline natural gas, about 4 times the cost of heating with oil, and about 3 times the cost of heating with propane. Insulating a room from drafts can also reduce heating costs greatly.
This is true, however, most homes are either equipped with single or two zone heating systems (1 or 2 furnaces)
Even with multi-zone systems, sometimes it pay to have a little space heater (oil filled radiator heater) in the room where heat is needed, while keeping the rest of the house/zone at lower temperature.
We have a 3 bedroom home, and there are just two of us and a cat. There is no need to keep the whole house at 68°F, where we can keep the house at 62°F and the master bedroom at 66°F. We have minimized the air flow to the other two bedrooms, but at night, there is still the whole living room, which is not occupied that would be heated.
blueiedgod said:jolma said:Thank you for posting this - there is just a few more things to note. To heat an area with electricity is usually about 5 times the cost of heating with pipeline natural gas, about 4 times the cost of heating with oil, and about 3 times the cost of heating with propane. Insulating a room from drafts can also reduce heating costs greatly.
This is true, however, most homes are either equipped with single or two zone heating systems (1 or 2 furnaces)
Even with multi-zone systems, sometimes it pay to have a little space heater (oil filled radiator heater) in the room where heat is needed, while keeping the rest of the house/zone at lower temperature.
We have a 3 bedroom home, and there are just two of us and a cat. There is no need to keep the whole house at 68°F, where we can keep the house at 62°F and the master bedroom at 66°F. We have minimized the air flow to the other two bedrooms, but at night, there is still the whole living room, which is not occupied that would be heated.
Restricting too much air flow puts extra strain on your blower motor. Ideally you don't want to block these vents, but to just leave them slightly open.
berkeleyman said:ZenNUTS said:It's that time of the year again. Where deceptive and outright scam on electrical heater floods the newspaper and magazines.
Let's set one thing straight..
All electrical resistance heater are 100% efficient. That is, all the electicity used is converted to heat. Your 1500 watts hair dryer is just as efficient as a 1500 watts Edenpure heater.
You can buy good electrical heater from Home Depot, Lowes, or WalMart for under $100.
Great statement but needs further disclosure.
Using AC "in reverse" for heating (where climate allows) may achieve more than 100% efficiency as AC running in reverse cools down outside air in theory leading to more heat getting inside than you get from the power-grid. That said the difference may be negated or even reversed by the effect of pushing warmed air out of the building via downdraught. Needless to say neither of the above collers use these principles.
I assume you're talking about heat pumps. It's true that they can be extremely efficient in mild climates, but because they rely on pulling heat out of the outside air, their performance drops tremendously as the outside temperature gets colder, unless you couple your heat pump with a geothermal well.
thekid72 said: Oil filled is best for nice gradual heat, and is very safe since the radiator temperature of the unit is never really hot. Perfect for adding extra warmth to a childs bedroom.
Radiant, which is getting rare, is great for spot heating as you feel the heat radiating from the unit. Great for the garage or the "mud room" - not great around kids. The oil filled heater I had would burn your hand if you touched it.
Radiant heating, as in whole floor radiant heat, is cool to the touch.
Message edited by: par38lamp on 2009-10-12 15:18:06 CDT
If you are heating a bedroom for example and turning down the thermostat for the rest of the house, nothing beats this unit from Grainger see or similar designs that have a fan that blows air across a heating element. The volume and temp of the air coming out of this unit exceeds what normally comes out of my wall vent.
Message edited by: miqie on 2009-10-14 16:45:03 CDT
I keep my place at 60F and use a little parabolic radiant heat dish from costco for spot heating (cat position in ad is parallel to reality). Seems to work great for me....
Some of the lines in the product details are very cheesy though:
"Infinite Switch technology: provides a virtually infinite choice of heat settings, allowing you to select with precision the level of warmth desired" -- i.e. it's an analog dial
"Costs a third less to operate than 1500 watt heaters" -- because it is a 1kW heater
Message edited by: lray on 2009-10-19 14:47:52 CDT
Thank you OP! Those things are a scam. You have hopefully saved alot of people some hard earned cash.
BTW Having been around some Amish in my life...all I know that they know how to do well is drive a horse and carriage. I once saw this man take a corner gong 45-50 with a horse and carriage- I was amazed!
jolma said:Thank you for posting this - there is just a few more things to note. To heat an area with electricity is usually about 5 times the cost of heating with pipeline natural gas, about 4 times the cost of heating with oil, and about 3 times the cost of heating with propane. Insulating a room from drafts can also reduce heating costs greatly.
Can you back this up? 'cuz I live in Kentucky, where electricity is, at most, 7 cents a KWH. Electricity works out cheaper for me.
soundtechie said:jolma said:Thank you for posting this - there is just a few more things to note. To heat an area with electricity is usually about 5 times the cost of heating with pipeline natural gas, about 4 times the cost of heating with oil, and about 3 times the cost of heating with propane. Insulating a room from drafts can also reduce heating costs greatly.
Can you back this up? 'cuz I live in Kentucky, where electricity is, at most, 7 cents a KWH. Electricity works out cheaper for me.
1 KWH = 3412 BTU. Heating oil has about 138,000 BTU per gallon. However, many furnaces are only 90% efficient. Let's say heating oil is $2.30 a gallon. Let's say a house requires 3 gallons of heating oil for a day. Cost to heat with heating oil: $6.90 Cost to heat with electricity: 3 * .9 * 138,000 BTU / 3412 BTU per kwh = 109.2 KWh. Even at 7 cents per KWh, this is $7.64, slightly more than oil. Since it is easier to have multiple zones and heat different rooms to different temperatures with electricity, though, at that rate electric has the advantage. In some areas electricity is as much as 25 cents per KWh. Also, 95% efficient furnaces exist. Heating oil prices have gone up though since I originally considered these calculations, so at a typical electric rate of 16 cents per KWh, heating oil is only 2.5 times cheaper, no longer 4 times.
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...PS do you think this will be the end of the Amish
