All basic 1500W space heaters are the same?

[Jeff7]

1500W is 1500W, whether it's a forced convection heater, radiant heater, oil-filled radiator, a leaf blower, an air conditioner...anything. (Assuming you've got the AC entirely indoors.) One way or another, you're putting that energy into the box that is your house.

Radiant heaters will heat objects directly using EM radiation, whereas the others use convection.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The Dyson commercials state that they output more heat than what they use, which as far as I know, is BS, but it's what the commercials says!

But yeah they all have different way of heating but as far as heat output it will come up to the same. Electric heat is 100% efficient. A small percentage of that heat is also through the cables, substations etc... But a good portion of it will be at the heater.

I'm a big fan of oil filled ones since they are quiet, and rather safe. Pretty sure you could even put something on top and it would not burn. Plastic would probably melt, wood would maybe slightly burn, but I doubt it could start a fire. Element heaters can be really dangerous if put near curtains and stuff like that. But no matter what type you get they are safe if used properly.

 

[cbrsurfr]

What are you trying to heat? I bought an oil filled thinking it would be more efficient because of no fan and the residual heat. My electric bill doubled the first month. $80-$163. I'm sure not all of it was the heater but it had to be a large chunk of it.

 

[Jeff7]

What are you trying to heat? I bought an oil filled thinking it would be more efficient because of no fan and the residual heat. My electric bill doubled the first month. $80-$163. I'm sure not all of it was the heater but it had to be a large chunk of it.

Same efficiency. It's a radiant+natural-convection heater, with a bit of thermal inertia from the oil.
And you could still heat that room by running 1500 watts of nothing but fans in the room, though that breeze would increase the heating of your walls, which are coupled to the outside air; the effectiveness of this coupling is determined by how well-insulated they are. Again, you're still pushing 1500 watts into the room.

And yes, an electric heater can boost your electric bill in a hurry.
(heater watts/1000) * (hours of runtime) * ($/kWh) = $$$

 

[Red Squirrel]

You can even heat your house with computers! If I had the money I'd totally setup a F@H cluster and fire it up in winter.

It's too bad electricity cost's more than gas per therm of energy though.

 

[Jeff7]

You can even heat your house with computers! If I had the money I'd totally setup a F@H cluster and fire it up in winter.

It's too bad electricity cost's more than gas per therm of energy though.

Yeah, that's the main problem. :\

Burn fuel, make steam, spin turbine, make electricity, send over lossy wires, convert to different voltage a few times, make heat.

or

Burn fuel, make heat. Done.


Though the power company certainly benefits from economies of scale, by having trainloads or pipeloads of fuels sent right to them en masse, rather than a big network of natural gas pipes going out to every home - but it's evidently not enough to make it cheaper.
Maybe after high-temperature superconductors are cheaply available ...though that would be revolutionary in many industries.

 

[cbrsurfr]

Same efficiency. It's a radiant+natural-convection heater, with a bit of thermal inertia from the oil.
And you could still heat that room by running 1500 watts of nothing but fans in the room, though that breeze would increase the heating of your walls, which are coupled to the outside air; the effectiveness of this coupling is determined by how well-insulated they are. Again, you're still pushing 1500 watts into the room.

And yes, an electric heater can boost your electric bill in a hurry.
(heater watts/1000) * (hours of runtime) * ($/kWh) = $$$

I assumed the oil filled would require significantly less runtime (continue to heat the room when "off") vs a ceramic w/ fan and therefore cost me less per month.

 

[Jeff7]

I assumed the oil filled would require significantly less runtime (continue to heat the room when "off") vs a ceramic w/ fan and therefore cost me less per month.

It simply has more thermal inertia. It'll stay warm longer, but it also will take longer to heat up.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah, that's the main problem. :\

Burn fuel, make steam, spin turbine, make electricity, send over lossy wires, convert to different voltage a few times, make heat.

or

Burn fuel, make heat. Done.


Though the power company certainly benefits from economies of scale, by having trainloads or pipeloads of fuels sent right to them en masse, rather than a big network of natural gas pipes going out to every home - but it's evidently not enough to make it cheaper.
Maybe after high-temperature superconductors are cheaply available ...though that would be revolutionary in many industries.

Yeah for places that use any type of fuel to make electricity it definitely makes no sense to heat electric from an efficiency standpoint. :awe: For hydro/solar/wind then it makes sense, but not financially.

I always wondered though, if there is a way to convert heat into electricity in a very efficient way, you could use the excess heat of any appliance to create even more electricity, which if drawn, creates more heat. Next thing you know you're heating your whole house with a single candle. :biggrin:

 

[Monkeywrench]

If you want to heat an object/person get one with a fan. For heating a room the radiator style is best.

 

[mmntech]

Thing is if it's cold outside the extra heat generated by the rig will not be wasted because your using a heater to heat the house anyway, kinda like using the oven, I try and not use it during the summer as you have to pay to heat up the oven then pay again for your AC system to remove the extra heat, a good quality gas grill is a huge money saver in the summer, I use it (and a charcoal one) a lot during those months..

Makes sense. I forget it does get chilly in Florida.

Electricity used to be cheap enough to heat here up until recently; after a failed attempt to privatize the hydro and a failed renewable energy project that saw coal plants replaced with windmills. The windmills can't keep up with demand so they had to build natural gas plants to offset the problem. Then they cancelled a pair of unpopular gas plants to keep seats in the last election, bumping up hydro rates even more. It's been a beautiful disaster. It's hurt the mining and smelting industries hard, as well as a lot of low income people. Many older affordable apartments use baseboard heat, which is not included in rent.

The Dyson commercials state that they output more heat than what they use, which as far as I know, is BS, but it's what the commercials says!

Their "Air Multiplier" technology that defies the laws of physics. The Dyson heaters and fans do work well. Problem is they work just as well as heaters a and fans a tenth the price.

 

[Imp]

I've done energy audits in grad school, and you are supposed to add every watt of electricity used according to the meter as heat gain. Someone said it: heat (one of?) the lowest form of energy that everything breaks down to, which includes all your useful visible light from lamps, sound, and stuff that moves.

Radiant heat works by "radiating" the heat to the object and not the air, though it'll probably still heat the air a bit, but it's not the focus. Ideally, you wouldn't have to waste as much juice to heat the entire volume of air in your house, and having ti literally go out the door or a crack. Because you need a pretty large surface area to direct/reflect/radiant the heat to you, any portable radiant heating element would have to be pretty large in surface area.

And if you want to be "green", figure out what your electricity is made from. Forget monetary cost. If it's hydroelectric or nuclear (maybe wind, lulz?), then you're "greener" using that than burning natural gas or propane or any other burnable fuel.

P.S. I want a Dyson just because... effing marketing.