Space heaters?
Ken Knecht
purchased had or soon had noisy fans and sometimes inaccurate thermostats
(shut off too soon even at maximum heat setting (Holmes). I need it for
an approximately 12 x 12' bedroom.
TIA
--
When you choose the lesser of two evils, always
remember that it is still an evil.
Max Lerner
Anthony Matonak
> Any recommendations for an electric space heater? In the past those I've
> purchased had or soon had noisy fans and sometimes inaccurate thermostats
> (shut off too soon even at maximum heat setting (Holmes). I need it for
> an approximately 12 x 12' bedroom.
You could go with one of those oil filled radiator style heaters.
As I recall, they don't have fans and they don't get hot enough
to catch anything on fire. You might add a ceiling fan, if you
don't have one already, to stir up the air a little.
One thing I've noticed about those little fan heaters is that they
usually have an internal thermal cut-off that turns them off when
they overheat. If the fan isn't blowing good enough or it's got a
lot of dust blocking it, it'll overheat long before it gets the
room up to the thermostat temperature. Cleaning them out with a
vac every now and then helps a lot.
Anthony
James
I bought a house with an add on room built by the previous owner as a
laundry room. Its very poorly constructed and insulated. While I've
done a lot to try and fix this, it still gets very cold.
I tried many types of heaters and the best is the oil filled radiator.
It seems to be a more constant heat, though it takes longer to heat
up. Its silent. No moving parts to break.
James
Jeff
> On Nov 27, 9:01 am, Anthony Matonak
> <anthony...@nothing.like.socal.rr.com> wrote:
>
>>Ken Knecht wrote:
>>
>>>Any recommendations for an electric space heater? In the past those I've
>>>purchased had or soon had noisy fans and sometimes inaccurate thermostats
>>>(shut off too soon even at maximum heat setting (Holmes). I need it for
>>>an approximately 12 x 12' bedroom.
>>
>>You could go with one of those oil filled radiator style heaters.
>>As I recall, they don't have fans and they don't get hot enough
>>to catch anything on fire. You might add a ceiling fan, if you
>>don't have one already, to stir up the air a little.
>>
>>One thing I've noticed about those little fan heaters is that they
>>usually have an internal thermal cut-off that turns them off when
>>they overheat. If the fan isn't blowing good enough or it's got a
>>lot of dust blocking it, it'll overheat long before it gets the
>>room up to the thermostat temperature. Cleaning them out with a
>>vac every now and then helps a lot.
>>
>
> I second that.
And, I'll third that.
The radiator type are the safest. The heat is the most comfortable.
And any radiant heater will be superior if it is drafty as it heats
the contents rather than the air which in a drafty room is on the way out!
If you need quicker heat (or a small heater), as in a bathroom, then
the ceramic heaters (in a ground fault receptical}. I like my Titans.
Ceramics don't have exposed hot wires. You have to be more carefull
though than a radiator.
Put any other kind of fan forced heater off your list.
The thermostat on my Soleus radiator crapped out, so I would look at
the other radiators (my DeLonghi is fine). There's minor tweaks from one
to another, but all space heaters deliver the same amount of heat out
for the same input in.
Jeff
Don K
>
> The radiator type are the safest. The heat is the most comfortable.
Comfortable? Not for me.
My in-laws had one of those quartz radiant heaters and I remember
I'd be warm on one side and cold on the other. Maybe you can be
comfortable if you sit on a rotating chair or spit so it can heat evenly.
> And any radiant heater will be superior if it is drafty as it heats the contents rather
> than the air which in a drafty room is on the way out!
I disagree.
I've got a big old boxy-type heater from Montgomery Wards that is a
combination of radiant and forced air heat. The thermostat works
fine. Unlike teeny-tiny heaters, its fan isn't noisy. It warms both the
room and the air in it. IMO the warm air is essential to comfort.
> If you need quicker heat (or a small heater), as in a bathroom, then the ceramic
> heaters (in a ground fault receptical}. I like my Titans. Ceramics don't have exposed
> hot wires. You have to be more carefull though than a radiator.
>
> Put any other kind of fan forced heater off your list.
I have no axe to grind, but I'd say use your own common sense
and prefenences when evaluating the pros and cons of various heaters..
Don
Jeff
> "Jeff" <dont_...@all.uk> wrote in message news:13kole9...@corp.supernews.com...
>
>> The radiator type are the safest. The heat is the most comfortable.
>
>
> Comfortable? Not for me.
>
> My in-laws had one of those quartz radiant heaters and I remember
> I'd be warm on one side and cold on the other.
And if you were outside with that then at least half of yourself would
be warm.
But no one is recommending a quartz tube heater. The radiant area is
too small and the temperature is too high. You need surface area. Note
"radiator", not "radiant".
Ever been in a room with radiant floor heating? The radiators are as
close to that as you can get with a space heater.
Maybe you can be
> comfortable if you sit on a rotating chair or spit so it can heat evenly.
>
>
>> And any radiant heater will be superior if it is drafty as it heats the contents rather
>>than the air which in a drafty room is on the way out!
>
>
> I disagree.
>
> I've got a big old boxy-type heater from Montgomery Wards that is a
> combination of radiant and forced air heat. The thermostat works
> fine. Unlike teeny-tiny heaters, its fan isn't noisy. It warms both the
> room and the air in it. IMO the warm air is essential to comfort.
Most people prefer a stratified heat where it cools slightly as you rise
from floor to ceiling. Warm feet, cool head. Fan forced heaters tend to
be much warmer on top. Even my radiators yield a slight warming from
bottom to top, but it is not as severe.
>
>
>> If you need quicker heat (or a small heater), as in a bathroom, then the ceramic
>>heaters (in a ground fault receptical}. I like my Titans. Ceramics don't have exposed
>>hot wires. You have to be more carefull though than a radiator.
>>
>> Put any other kind of fan forced heater off your list.
>
>
> I have no axe to grind, but I'd say use your own common sense
> and prefenences when evaluating the pros and cons of various heaters..
Most people don't know, which is why asking is good as it gives you a
little background to go on. And in a bedroom situation, saftey should
rise to the top of your list. Kids, pets and spouses do unpredictable
things.
I agree with you about quartz tube heaters, BTW.
Jeff
>
> Don
>
>
Logan Shaw
> Any recommendations for an electric space heater? In the past those I've
> purchased had or soon had noisy fans and sometimes inaccurate thermostats
> (shut off too soon even at maximum heat setting (Holmes). I need it for
> an approximately 12 x 12' bedroom.
I've got an electric baseboard radiator that I like a lot. The brand is
Honeywell. Mine is 2 or 3 years old, but it looks basically like this
one:
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HZ519-Digital-Profile-Comfort/dp/B000BC2GGS
It's not an oil-filled heater. Internally, there is a long (maybe 3 foot)
rod-shaped heating element with metal fins on it. So it's basically a
straight wire with a big heat sink around it. You put the thing along the
base of a wall, and the heated air rises, creating a convection current that
circulates air around the room. It's close to completely silent (there's a
very, very quiet 60 Hz hum). And there's no feeling of draftiness because
it makes the air move very slowly.
It takes maybe 30 minutes to really get a room heated up, but once it does,
it's very comfortable everywhere in the room, provided you keep all the
doors closed in that room. It works well for a bedroom at night. It has
a timer so you can run it for 8 or 10 hours and not worry about having to
remember to turn it off in the morning when you're in a hurry. I typically
would turn it on an hour or two before bedtime and set the timer for 10 hours.
Then the bed (including sheets) has time to heat up before I get in it.
That amazon.com listing shows it running $129. I don't think I paid nearly
that much for it, but I bought it at Home Depot in the clearance section in
the springtime. :-)
- Logan
m...@privacy.net
what abt something like this one?
Logan Shaw
Looks like another convection heater, so it probably does much the
same thing. It appears to just have 2 knobs on it, not a digital
thermostat, though. One of the things that's nice about the one I
have is the digital thermostat allows you to reproduce heat settings
from day to another. With a knob, if you accidentally move the knob
(or if you just want to adjust it temporarily), it's more difficult
to reliably get it back to the setting it was on before.
- Logan
Don K
> Don K wrote:
>
>> "Jeff" <dont_...@all.uk> wrote in message news:13kole9...@corp.supernews.com...
>>
>>> The radiator type are the safest. The heat is the most comfortable.
>>
>>
>> Comfortable? Not for me.
>>
>> My in-laws had one of those quartz radiant heaters and I remember
>> I'd be warm on one side and cold on the other.
>
> And if you were outside with that then at least half of yourself would be warm.
>
> But no one is recommending a quartz tube heater. The radiant area is too small and the
> temperature is too high. You need surface area. Note "radiator", not "radiant".
The term radiator is ambiguous in this context.
Oil-filled heaters heat mostly by convection but I guess people
still like to call them radiators because they look like those
old-fashioned "radiators" that connected to hot water or steam pipes.
Don
nicks...@ece.villanova.edu
>Oil-filled heaters heat mostly by convection but I guess people
>still like to call them radiators because they look like those
>old-fashioned "radiators" that connected to hot water or steam pipes.
Some call them radiators because they mostly radiate vs convect, even
with low surface temps :-) A 2'-tall 80 F 1 ft^2 vertical surface in
a 70 F room convects 0.19(80-70)^(4/3) = 4 Btu/h, in turbulent flow.
It radiates 0.1714x10^-8((460+80)^4-(460+70)^4) = 10 Btu/h.
Nick
Don K
news:fim76v$f...@acadia.ece.villanova.edu...
That's surprising!
Jeff
surprised!
Jeff
WaterBoy
Consumer Reports, Oct 2007
has an article/ratings on space heaters
you might want to read
waterboy
Vic Smith
Hey, I've got that exact heater by my desk, and use it if I get
chilly. Works pretty much like you said, though I just use one button
to turn it off or on.
My wife picked it up new, and I think she paid less than 50 bucks for
it.
--Vic