I have a couple of small resistance heaters with fans that I bought to carry
us over when our gas furnace had to be replaced one winter, years ago. On
the 1.35kw setting, one of these will take the chill off a closed room in
about fifteen minutes. My wife keeps one in our bedroom for use on cool
mornings.
I would not recommend one without the built-in fan.
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Norcutt" <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:33 AM
Subject: [OM] Re: (Wildly OT) Electric heaters
> Here's some commentary on quartz electric heaters.
> <http://forums.howwhatwhy.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=machines&Number=262499&fpart=1>
> Note especially the probable limitation of about 1500 watts if it's
> designed to plug into a 110 volt socket. That's about the same output
> as your Mr. Coffee. (1.5 kwh if on for an hour). After doing a little
> research on electricity prices in Maine (anywhere from 2 to 11 cents per
> kwh depending on source and an average somewhere between 6 and 10 cents)
> if you're paying, say, 8 cents/kwh you could run a 1500 watt heater
> for 12-1/2 hours for $1.00. Up to you to figure out if adding the
> equivalent of a Mr. Coffee to your room will make any difference to your
> comfort.
>
> If you have hot water heat I'd consider adding another heating zone to
> the area.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
> Tim Hughes wrote:
>> Bob,
>> in general electric heaters are bad for the environment, although a
>> point of use heater if it
>> allows you to cut your overall energy use by setting your thermostat to a
>> much lower *average*
>> temperature for the whole house can work well.
>>
>> All types of electric heaters are similar in efficiency, although having
>> a blower etc can make
>> percieved comfort better. Any claims that one electric heater is more
>> efficient than another at
>> generating heat, is bogus science.
>>
>> The general reason electric heating is bad, is that most of our
>> electricity is generated from
>> burning fossil fuel and to generate electricity the best possible
>> conversion efficiency is limited
>> by a heat engine Carnot cycle. This means electricity conversion from the
>> heat content in the
>> original fuel is under 40% maybe 30% after losses of distribution etc. I
>> don't have exact numbers
>> at my fingertips, but it is well under 50%. If you heat your house by
>> burning fuel oil or gas
>> directly the conversion efficiency could in theory approach 100%, but it
>> depends on furnace
>> design. I know for example even cheap Gas Water heaters run 70%, a bit
>> more for a power vent
>> designs and if you have a more expensive internal combustion design they
>> can run up to 95%. So
>> heating directly with gas or oil probably is at very least twice as
>> efficient in terms of carbon
>> produced and likely better. From a purely financial viewpoint though,
>> it depends on relative
>> cost per BTU from different fuels which can vary a lot short term,
>> because of contracts,hedging
>> etc by utilities. Over the long term the cost/BTU tends to even out for
>> different fuels, since
>> market forces even it out. In the US Natural gas prices for example vary
>> widely, state to state.
>> I seem to remember Utah for example has much lower prices (~0.5X ?) than
>> other places etc.
>>
>> Long term improving your house insulation ,Super -E double glazing, roof
>> insulation etc. would
>> make economic and environmental sense.
>>
>> Tim Hughes.
>>
>>
>> --- Bob Whitmire <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> Again, wildly off topic as far as photography is concerned, but I
>>> post questions here because I know there are folks on the list who
>>> have the kind of knowledge I'm looking for.
>>>
>>> So those of you who heat with oil know this coming winter is likely
>>> to be a nightmare for your bank account. We just got our EasyCap
>>> payment statement from the oil company, and we're going to be
>>> shelling out $489 a month for 10 months to keep our furnace fed this
>>> winter. (Unless, as some say, oil prices are on a bubble that's ripe
>>> for bursting. I'm not holding my breath.)
>>>
>>> A huge number of folk are turning to wood pellet stoves, so many in
>>> fact, that the stoves are backordered and there's no guarantee enough
>>> pellets will be available during the winter. I'm intrigued, but I'm
>>> not particularly in favor of encouraging the burning of even more
>>> fuels that directly dump assorted undesirable gasses into the
>>> atmosphere.
>>>
>>> Cord wood is going for about $262 a cord for green wood, and if you
>>> don't already have dried wood, forget it. Not going to get any.
>>>
>>> So I've been looking at electric heaters, space and otherwise. One I
>>> find intriguing is the quartz infrared heater. It retails for about
>>> $250-$300, claims to run on about $1 a day, and, if the claims are
>>> anywhere near true, would be able to take the edge off in, say, my
>>> upstairs work area, so that I could keep the thermostat at about 55F
>>> and run the heater while I'm working.
>>>
>>> Esteemed wife is looking at Vornado electric space heaters for her
>>> fitness studio. She has elderly clients, and needs to have the studio
>>> heated to about 68F. But she doesn't have that many clients in the
>>> winter, and these Vornados appear to be the type that would heat up
>>> the space quickly then turn off, at minimal cost in electricity.
>>> Again, the thermostat could be left at 55F, or even lower.
>>>
>>> Of course I know nothing about electric heater technology these days,
>>> but I do know there are all kinds of claims starting to circulate
>>> about how to beat the high cost of oil heat. And I know a few people
>>> who have ceramic space heaters who tote them from room to room in
>>> winter and claim to save a considerable amount of money off their
>>> fuel bills. If anyone on the list has already done the research, or
>>> is familiar with such things as quartz infrared heat, please advise.
>>> Off list, if you don't want to clog up the photo stuff, though my
>>> guess is there are more than just me who might be interested.
>>>
>>> Thanx in advance,
>>>
>>> --Bob Whitmire
>>> www.bwp33.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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