can anyone recommend a good electric space heater...one that actually heats a room. i know some are pieces of crap that blow moderately warm air you can only feel if your next to it. Im looking for one that fills a room so i can lower the ole thermostat.

1/25/2009 4:34:32 PM

lowes/home depot has some decent ones.

but honestly it's not gonna lower your bill much. Those things are fucking energy hogs to begin with. 1500W space heaters? that's like keeping your toaster on 24/7.

if you have a big house and you only use one room, it might help jsut to keep that room warm though, idk

1/25/2009 4:36:37 PM

space heaters give me headaches for some reason

1/25/2009 4:36:47 PM

my parents use one similiar to this and it seems to work pretty well:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5142284

They heat the house with a fireplace insert but use the space heater for added heat in the living room or the bedroom as needed.

[Edited on January 25, 2009 at 4:40 PM. Reason : ]

1/25/2009 4:37:09 PM

^we have those

1/25/2009 4:39:47 PM

I use my PS3. Just run the folding at home client, set the timer, and my room stays a good 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.

1/25/2009 4:40:39 PM

i have a small place, 900 sg ft. I have a tower one, not a radiator one, and it sucks. you can only feel it if its next to you

1/25/2009 4:44:56 PM

I have one similar to the one posted above. It works fairly well.

As dharney pointed out, watch the costs. A 1500W heater can cost you close to $100/mo if you leave it on all the time. If you own your place and plan to be there awhile, it may be more cost efficient to pay someone to look at upgrading/repairing your heat pump and ventilation.

1/25/2009 4:55:13 PM

It helps if it has a built in fan.

1/25/2009 7:04:03 PM

Quote :

"lowes/home depot has some decent ones. but honestly it's not gonna lower your bill much. Those things are fucking energy hogs to begin with. 1500W space heaters? that's like keeping your toaster on 24/7. if you have a big house and you only use one room, it might help jsut to keep that room warm though, idk"

How are you going to come up with a more efficient way to create watts of heat?

Free energy space heater

1/25/2009 7:12:39 PM

ah yes, the internet arguer. Hello

1/25/2009 9:20:51 PM

^^a heat pump that consumes 1500 W of energy places more than 1500 W of energy into the house because it extracts energy from the cold air outside. a 1500 W resistance heater only places 1500 W of energy (actually a little less) into the house.

learn about coefficient of performance and get back to us

1/25/2009 9:29:29 PM

whats the difference between a ceramic one and a heat fan one? im not a physicist, so dumb it down for me

1/25/2009 9:45:29 PM

forced convection vs. natural convection

the fan just moves the air across the hot surface and then out into the room. if it blows too hard though, the air will move too fast and won't warm up before it moves out into the room.

ones w/o a fan use natural convection (air in contact warms up and rises)

1/25/2009 10:04:27 PM

basically, all things being equal, the fan forced model will use more power and heat up your room faster.

[Edited on January 25, 2009 at 10:13 PM. Reason : i'd get the oil filled radiator. slow heat, but not bad at all.]

1/25/2009 10:13:25 PM

Quote :

"^^a heat pump that consumes 1500 W of energy places more than 1500 W of energy into the house because it extracts energy from the cold air outside. a 1500 W resistance heater only places 1500 W of energy (actually a little less) into the house. learn about coefficient of performance and get back to us"

So you deem a heat pump more efficient at producing watts of heat because you dont pay to keep the outside cold during the winter (thanks nature?). It's more efficient because you dont PAY for it? That's an interesting view point. I view efficiency is POUT/PIN. I'm missing the power bill variable.

1/26/2009 12:49:59 PM

Quote :

"When used for heating a building on a mild day, a typical air-source heat pump has a COP of 3 - 4, whereas a typical electric resistance heater has a COP of 1.0. That is, one joule of electrical energy will cause a resistance heater to produce one joule of useful heat, while under ideal conditions, one joule of electrical energy can cause a heat pump to move much more than one joule of heat from a cooler place to a warmer place. Sometimes this is inappropriately expressed as an efficiency value greater than 100%, as in the statement, "XYZ brand heat pumps operate at up to 400% efficiency!" This is incorrect term, since heat pump efficiency is measured in other way. However it is correct to declare system efficiency of 400%. The effective heating per watt of electric energy used can be up to 450% as much as resistance heating however, making this more an issue of semantics than science."

go sit in on a thermo class. i don't have time to explain this to you.

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 12:53 PM. Reason : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump]

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 12:56 PM. Reason : one dollar of electricity in a heat pump puts more energy in the house than $1 of elec in a res. htr]

1/26/2009 12:53:09 PM

Of course you don't. You just want to copy Wikipedia quotes. Which i actually find quite amusing because on the same link is stated :

Quote :

"When comparing the performance of heat pumps, it is best to avoid the word "efficiency" which has a very specific thermodynamic definition."

But obviously you knew that. You want to argue X. I'm stating and honestly have stated from the beginning Y.

Truce? Maybe we should go to class together?

1/26/2009 12:55:19 PM

The Amish have this thread on lock.

For real though, I have one of the oil filled ones like hondaguy posted. It works well and doesn't have to run all the time. Once it gets the oil heated it radiates heat for a long time after it is shut off. It heats my bedroom very quickly and then I can turn it to the lowest heat setting to maintain the temp.

I'd suggest getting one with a fan built in. I do regret not getting that. I have a ceiling fan, so I just turn the ceiling fan on reverse and it distributes the air fairly well throughout the room. It'll still warm the whole room without a fan, but the fan definitely helps distribute the air all around.

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 12:59 PM. Reason : l]

1/26/2009 12:57:22 PM

i have no idea what you're arguing

are you saying that a 1500 W resistance heater results in the same temperature change in my house as a 1500 W heat pump?

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 12:58 PM. Reason : i haven't used the terms efficiency anywhere. i did use COP though.]

1/26/2009 12:57:36 PM

Temperature change in your house based on your power bill does not mean a system is more efficient. You think its more efficient because you dont pay for it. Then you tell me to go to a thermo class. Do you think a thermodynamics class cares about how much you pay for power? Efficiency is based on a total system. You're taking advantage of the cold air outside your home which obviously a resistor will not. You CAN NOT come up with a more efficient way to use an input power to create heat then a resistor. PIN = POUT. Can you come up with a cheaper way to do it (you've answered this yourself three times now) YES. The cold air IS INPUT POWER.

I'm telling you. I'm saying X. You're saying Y. Truce baby!

Quote :

" learn about coefficient of performance and get back to us"

I'm sorry I originally read this as I was wrong in what I had said. I see now the difference in viewpoints.

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 1:03 PM. Reason : .]

1/26/2009 1:01:42 PM

there is a cheaper way to warm a house than filling it with space heaters

why does everyone take it personal when you try to explain their misconceptions to them?


i should argue that this man doesn't give a fuck about efficiency and only cares about cost, so why did you come in here touting efficiency bullshit?

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 1:05 PM. Reason : adsfjl;k]

1/26/2009 1:04:48 PM

Yes but that doesn't mean a space heater is inefficient. It isn't.

A heatpump isnt either. You just pay for less because one of your forms of input power is free.

Maybe we do need to go to class. I was an EE so I never got to take thermodynamics. Perhaps the mentality is "dont pay for it, thats a dont care" oh look a heat pump is 600% efficient!!!

1/26/2009 1:07:07 PM

mother nature wants her energy back

oh wait, she gets it right back through the walls

1/26/2009 1:08:36 PM

yeah i think she gets a little TOO much back from me

1/26/2009 1:09:47 PM

If you have poorly insulated ducting, a space heater is the way to go, just heat the room you are in the most. The place my parents are in has gas heat and no duct insulation. They set the heat low and use the oil filled electric heaters in whatever room they are in. Also good if the central heat doesn't distribute the heat evenly. I had one apartment that dumped all the central heat and AC into my bedroom, had to get one of the oil filled heaters so the roomie wasn't freezing while I was sweating.

1/26/2009 1:24:56 PM

900 sq ft is pretty big for a 1500w space heater. don't they say to use them in rooms like 150-200 sq ft?

1/26/2009 1:35:57 PM

Quote :

"If you have poorly insulated ducting, a space heater is the way to go"

if its a house that you are actually planning on living in for a long time/that you own, then correctly insulating your duct work if it is at all easy to get to is the way to go certainly going to save you a LOT more money in the long run than running a space heater on top of inefficient duct runs

[Edited on January 26, 2009 at 1:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/26/2009 1:52:32 PM

the heater that is always in a different place in costco always amazes me...

1/26/2009 3:39:44 PM

the radiant one?

1/26/2009 3:43:07 PM

Sweatshirts and coats work great.

1/26/2009 3:45:04 PM

i like bulky blankets

1/26/2009 4:17:16 PM

Quote :

"if its a house that you are actually planning on living in for a long time/that you own, then correctly insulating your duct work if it is at all easy to get to is the way to go certainly going to save you a LOT more money in the long run than running a space heater on top of inefficient duct runs"

I doubt that many people here own their home. I know I wouldn't be planning to stick around a 900sqft place for a long time.

1/26/2009 5:15:30 PM

well obviously, but i was just pointing out a situation where a spaceheater is not the way to go

1/26/2009 7:28:06 PM