is there any more efficient kind of electric room heater?

[dpopiz]

I have this little fan with a heater coil built into it. goes up to 1500W!!!!!! yeah it get's pretty warm and cozy, but 1500W?!?!
isn't there something more efficient?

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: dpopiz
I have this little fan with a heater coil built into it. goes up to 1500W!!!!!! yeah it get's pretty warm and cozy, but 1500W?!?!
isn't there something more efficient?

Central Boiler Heating.

 

[flot]

I'm sure someone will correct me with I'm wrong, but I *think* that heating a wire is about the most efficient thing you can do with electricity???

That 1500w is almost entirely being used to warm you up.

 

[arcas]

Nah. Assuming you have an adequate heat reservoir, a heat engine/pump is far more efficient than simply running electricity through a wire. On the order of three times more efficient. But this assumes that you're not trying to operate it in bitter cold temperatures (a heat pump extracts heat from the reservoir and dumps it into the room). You're not going to find many small heat pumps though (refrigerators qualify but you'd have to do some hacking to convert it into a room heater).

One thing to do is make sure you have adequate humidity in the room. You'll be surprised how much warmer 68 degrees at 60% relative humidity feels compared to 68 degrees at, say, 30% humidity. It's like night and day.

 

[Maximus96]

i think the ceramic ones are more efficient. i bought a heater fan couple years ago and it was fine. then this winter i bought a ceramic one. it makes more heat than the fan one. check out the 'heat dish'. i see them in costco. its only 1000w or so, and you feel the heat a good 20' away from the display in costco.