Need advice on heaters

[Rou25]

Hi everyone, so I'm looking for an energy-efficient heater.
I know about Dyson and Duraflame models, but I'm more interested in personal experience. I trust you, so here we go, haha
hope to see some reviews or something

cheers

[Rou25]

still no answer, so I tried to google things
I'm reading this article about energy-efficient heaters - are those reliable? Any real reviews?

[thatguy]

What is an energy efficient electric heater? How would it gain efficiency? I would assume the only way to do it is to heat a local area instead of a room. So a radiant heater will be “energy efficient” but won’t work if you are walking around or trying to heat a large space.

If you are trying to heat a room I would suggest an oil heater. They are quiet and provide a nice even heat. It’s still electric though so 1 watt of heat will still only be 1 watt of heat.

Personally I disappointed when I used a parabolic heater, so I would recommend staying away from those.

1500 watts is about the max you will get on a 15 amp circuit so keep that in mind when looking at hearers. I can go to Home Depot and buy a cheep little space heater for $20 that puts out 800 and 1500 watts heat, then look beside it and see a “commercial , large room“ space heater with less functions for $80 price tag. They are the same physical size and same output when set to max but one looks rugged while the other looks like a black office desktop type style.

How big is the space you are trying to heat?

Will you be sitting at a desk, or moving around a lot?

Is style/looks important?

[Poodle Head Mikey]

All electric heaters operate at the same efficiency - which is 100%.

Every fall and winter the charlatans all come out and try to sell consumers electric heaters of various configurations by using words like high and efficiency in the same sentence. I am guessing that this year will be the same or worse. <g>

PHM
--------

Hi everyone, so I'm looking for an energy-efficient heater.
I know about Dyson and Duraflame models, but I'm more interested in personal experience. I trust you, so here we go, haha
hope to see some reviews or something

cheers

[Restaurant Mech]

you want an efficient heater? Get a heat pump. Unfortunately they are expensive

[Unlimited1]

I completed my solar project on free heat 4 years ago ..with payback in 3 to be really free..1 is solar hot water/glycol..12v solar pump.. that goes to 1 heat exchanger (used 4 ton coil)
Other is solar electric panel with inverter to hot water heater and agm gel batteries...Valving 500 gal in ground storage and insulated with 12v pump to shower hot water and in converted 4 ton (repaired) coil in separate Side return ...In my vacation home...

Blue flame wall heater in den, wood burning in living room. 60lb propane tank and little buddy heater in my workshop..

[Poodle Head Mikey]

There used to be heat pump window-box AC units available - I wonder if they are still? I was going to buy two a few years ago but they were all too large (too much cooling) for me: I needed two 5000's.

PHM
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you want an efficient heater? Get a heat pump. Unfortunately they are expensive

[ehsx]

All electric heaters operate at the same efficiency - which is 100%.

Every fall and winter the charlatans all come out and try to sell consumers electric heaters of various configurations by using words like high and efficiency in the same sentence. I am guessing that this year will be the same or worse. <g>

PHM
--------

Electric heaters all have the same efficiency, but radiant heaters don't loose as much heat due to air changes and infiltration.

[Poodle Head Mikey]

Why is that? How does that happen exactly?

Electric heaters all have the same efficiency, but radiant heaters don't loose as much heat due to air changes and infiltration.

[ehsx]

Heat is absorbed by solid materials, not just air temperature is changed.

[Poodle Head Mikey]

Hmmm . . . that is true but let me think about it more. Isn't all the heat produced going to eventually end up in the air anyway? Although; I suppose it would then be at lower temperature - the air containing heat - than would be the air if directly heated by a resistance element. So at the point of generation the loses might be greater. But wouldn't the losses elsewhere (where the air is cooler) then be less? And so make the average-loss of the space the same?

Maybe if just the person themselves could be heated via radiant - and so kept warm while not actually heating the space - the operating costs could be less.

So spot-heating radiant electric may be lower use-cost I guess. The 'efficiency' is still 100% but the cost of operation may cost less. Although that would strictly be due to doing less actual heating.

Thinking more: I built electrically heated grip-covers to keep my hands warm while riding motorcycles in the winter. Along the same lines would be electrically heated clothing for indoor use. I guess more convenient than standard clothing would be a long house-coat kind of thing - like a long trench coat made from an 'electric blanket'.

I wonder if there already is such a thing? <g>

PHM
-------

Heat is absorbed by solid materials, not just air temperature is changed.

[ehsx]

For some of same reason garages use radiant tube systems vs forced air. Don't loose all the heat when the doors are opened.

[Restaurant Mech]

There used to be heat pump window-box AC units available - I wonder if they are still? I was going to buy two a few years ago but they were all too large (too much cooling) for me: I needed two 5000's.

PHM
--------

They are still available up here. Carrier had them in the buyers guide last year

[Poodle Head Mikey]

I was thinking originally here of space heating - as I thought that's what the OP was asking about. But now that you have made me forget that box - I think an argument could be made for battery operated clothing, especially a vest, for indoor use. Maybe wear it in the house and keep 2-3-4 rechargeable batteries sitting in the charger. The indoor space could be 40-50º F. and you would still be comfortable.

I do know from experience that all you really have to heat is your heart. A lighter-fluid powered 'hand warmer' in a shirt pocket will easily keep your whole body warm. Sometimes too warm depending on the jacket/coat worn over it. The 'hand warmer' heats the blood in your chest and your heart pump circulates it to out all the far corners. The effect is astonishing.

I would imagine that a heated vest would do the same thing.

[Juan Madera]

This? https://www.floormat.com/heated-mats...ed-chair-mats/

[thatguy]

There used to be heat pump window-box AC units available - I wonder if they are still? I was going to buy two a few years ago but they were all too large (too much cooling) for me: I needed two 5000's.

PHM
--------

If you pay me I can come to your house and turn it around for you every season

[Restaurant Mech]

I was thinking originally here of space heating - as I thought that's what the OP was asking about. But now that you have made me forget that box - I think an argument could be made for battery operated clothing, especially a vest, for indoor use. Maybe wear it in the house and keep 2-3-4 rechargeable batteries sitting in the charger. The indoor space could be 40-50º F. and you would still be comfortable.

I do know from experience that all you really have to heat is your heart. A lighter-fluid powered 'hand warmer' in a shirt pocket will easily keep your whole body warm. Sometimes too warm depending on the jacket/coat worn over it. The 'hand warmer' heats the blood in your chest and your heart pump circulates it to out all the far corners. The effect is astonishing.

I would imagine that a heated vest would do the same thing.

Milwaukee makes battery powered heated jackets. I love mine come winter

[Unlimited1]

I wear wool blend thermals and hat with a Columbia Omni Heat reflective gear. I’m mainly sweating my arse off when moving around at a-20 wind chill..
https://www.columbia.com/c/technolog...eatreflective/

[Artrose]

For our purposes, what we're calling heat is nothing more than relative energy. Extremely simplified, if we say something has more heat, it simply means a substances molecules have more energy than it's surroundings.

Heat (molecular motion) moves by three different methods. Conduction, convection, and radiation. Nature is always seeking balance. If a substance has more energy than it's surroundings, it will offer some of it's energy to it's less energetic neighbor by one of it's natural heat transfer modes, until each reaches a mutually energetic state.

The OP was asking about electric heat. As Poodle tried to explain, electric heat is 100% efficient. One watt of electric input yields 3.41 BTU's of output. No loss.

If you are using natural gas, it gets more complicated. Each source of natural gas has a slightly different BTU value when it's burned. (generally around 1000 btu/cu ft)
We normally use some form of heat exchanger to transfer the heat of combustion to air, water, or other. It might be an open burner, plenum, fire tube, or other. There is always a loss (wasted, or uncaptured energy) during this exchange.

Another example: We often equate efficiency to per unit cost of the medium we chose to convert to heat for our structures, or whatever use we have. This is not valid. Electricity is 100% efficient, but it's per unit cost is higher than an equivalent of the cheaper per unit price of natural gas.

Someone here said a heat pump is an efficient heater. Relative to what? For our purposes, that's not an accurate statement. There are many many opportunities for energy loss in a common heat pump system. Too much to explain in this setting. Granted, heat pumps are better today than they have ever been, but they are still amongst the most energy in-efficient for heating a conditioned envelope. Especially in cold climates.

[stanbyyourword]

I wear wool blend thermals and hat with a Columbia Omni Heat reflective gear. I’m mainly sweating my arse off when moving around at a-20 wind chill..
https://www.columbia.com/c/technolog...eatreflective/

funny guy