Best Electric Space Heater?

Guyon

Guyon

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One end of our older home has what used to be a one-car garage. When we bought the house, it was a utility room that had been "remodeled" by drunken stable hands. That is, the workers obviously had no carpentry/sheetrock skills, and they were quite familiar with crap.

I gutted the room, added electrical and phone outlets, put in new insulation (both in the walls and in the attic), added a new wall, etc. I also managed, despite the hell into which I had to crawl, to run some flexible insulated duct to that room so that it has one heating/cooling register tied into our heat pump.

The room is still cold though. It sits on a concrete slab (remember, old garage) and is on the west side of the house where most of the cold wind hits. The new insulation, carpet pad and carpet help, but it's still usually 5 to 10 degrees colder in that room.

Today, while grabbing a couple of items in The Home Despot, I saw a ton of these heaters in an aisle display, and they reminded me that I need to put something in that room to warm it up a little more. So far, it is still a utility room, but we're about to move our desk/home office down there to make some room for a new child.

Any tips on electric space heat? Anybody got a good line on a heater that works well? The room BTW is roughly 9' x 15'.
 
We have one of those Kenwoods that we mainly use on very cold mornings in the bathroom when the OL wants to shower in the morning,it works great in that size space.Last week when it was zero with a -20 degree windchill,we moved it into the living room a couple of nights,that room is 12 X 20 with a 10ft ceiling,it raised the heat in that room by a few degrees.A 9 x 15 room with a regular height ceiling it should do ok.
 
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I've got three of those, that I use in various spaces around the house and garage. They are much better than the old 'milkhouse' type forced air heaters. If 1500 watts is going to do it for your space, they are about the best way to go. If you end up needing more heat in a 9x12 room than one of these puts out, you're going to want to do more insulation.
 
We use oil-filled radiators also. Great way to heat my library at night when I'm reading Bladeforums, without running the main boiler for the entire house. One of ours is a "Lakewood" and the other is a "Holmes." Can't remember which one came from where, maybe WalMart and ACE? Anyhow, there's no difference between them, and either one could easily heat an insulated 9x15 room in Tennessee.

Good Luck!
-Bob
 
I have an Edenpure and a Sunheat. The two put out the same heat levels on max but the edenpure is much more "customizable" in that the user can turn the output settings anywhere he chooses and it will put out THAT MUCH. On the Sunheat the user sets the dial where he wants it and the unit only comes on every now and then (ostesibly to maintain the target temp). The Edenpure, meanwhile, runs all the time and only spits out what heat the operator set it at. As for noise output, Edenpure all the way. Quiet as a cat on the hunt. Makes the Sunheat sound like the Space Shuttle going thru pre-launch. Of the two, I prefer the Edenpure. Cheaper too, which makes a guy like me rather, well you know, warm and fuzzy all over. :jerkit:

Either one takes less juice than a comparable "conventional" electric heater that you see in the big box stores. Check these units out. They work on infared technology and have copper heat exchagers built in for efficency. They work.
 
Harry Callahan said:
Either one takes less juice than a comparable "conventional" electric heater that you see in the big box stores. Check these units out. They work on infared technology and have copper heat exchagers built in for efficency. They work.
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Watts convert to BTUs. Infrared or plain old resistance, there is no advantage. This has been totally debunked. They are just selling you the sizzle, as electric heat is not efficient, and never will be. Doesn't matter if the heat exchanger is wrapped in plutonium, you can't get more BTUs out of the same number of watts.
 
The solar heat dish from Costco is a great buy. I think its a 1000 watts. Leave it on low to keep the walls warmed and when you sit or stand 10 or 15 feet away crank it and you can feel it project heat like a fan. You are warm but don't have to heat the entire room if your only going to spend a couple of hours. Its cold here in Canada.
 
xdshooter is 100% correct. The only electric heat that represents less in and more out are heat pumps-- either air or geo. And even that energy doesn't form out of thin air, you just aren't paying for it.

However, electric resistant heat is efficient (100%), unless you are comparing them to the heat pumps.
 
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I think what the EdenPure type of heaters try to do are to make you feel warmer. They're quartz heaters. The idea is that you keep the heater on a certain setting, one that uses less kWh than, say, 8' of resistance heat. This type of heater then cranks out the radiant heat, which warms solid objects in the room, such as human bodies. It does not raise the ambient temperature in the room too much like convective heat would, because the unit is probably going to be undersized. The idea is to make you feel warmer with a very limited heat output; and to supplement the main heating plant.
 
Okay, this discussion got technical fast. Can we have a quick primer sort of like Space Heaters for Dummies? :p
 
Oil-filled radiators like the one you're looking at are good. Some other kinds of electric heater are advertised as more efficient, but they aren't really.

A full understanding of why they aren't really could get pretty technical, or you could just go out and buy an oil-filled radiator. :)

An oil-filled radiator is silent, steady warmth with no hassle. Just plug it in and set it and you'll soon forget it's even there, and forget you were ever cold in that room.
 
Guyon said:
Okay, this discussion got technical fast. Can we have a quick primer sort of like Space Heaters for Dummies? :p
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It's not hard.

One of the easiest things to do with electric current is create heat. There are thermodynamic reasons for this ... but who cares at this point? ;)

The various heaters are just different ways to do the conversion. Some blast heat out faster and some slower.

Ratings in kWh are kilowatt hours (power times time = energy). It's essentially telling you how much energy it turns into heat over a standard period of time. The British have used BTUs or British Thermal Units for a very long time ... there is a simple conversion factor you can look up.

Some folks feel one conversion method or another is superior, but that's just a matter of personal preference + opinions on safety. The only other discriminators besides price would be convenience ... how well you like the controls ... and reliability (but these devices are all pretty solid by now).

Have fun ... warmly.

EDIT: I see Cougar likes oil-filled radiators. I, too, happen to like them. Quite convenient, very robust, and they produce heat rather gently ... easy on us old guys.
 
A radiant heater heats one side of you and leaves the other side cold. Heaters that have fans are noisy. Some heaters cycle on and off and when they're on they're very hot and can set things on fire if anything flammable is too close.

An oil-filled radiator heats the whole room, and it doesn't make any noise or set anything on fire. :thumbup:
 
Cougar Allen said:
A radiant heater heats one side of you and leaves the other side cold. Heaters that have fans are noisy. Some heaters cycle on and off and when they're on they're very hot and can set things on fire if anything flammable is too close.

An oil-filled radiator heats the whole room, and it doesn't make any noise or set anything on fire. :thumbup:
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And they're cheap,if you waited this long,I'd wait a couple more weeks,I've seen the oil filled heaters go on sale for about $20.00 near the end of the heating season.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Despite the possible savings for waiting, we needed heat now, so I went ahead and picked up the heater linked above. I've had it set up in the room for about an hour, and it already has made a noticeable difference. The room is quite warm and comfortable, and my wife is much happier. Lots to be said for that latter condition. Any day you can make your wife happy for $40 is a good day.
 
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