If I remember my applied physics correctly, 1,500 watts should equal 5,118 btu / hr., no matter how you slice it. So why do infrared heaters seem to work so much better than other electric heaters?
Last year, on the first cold day, I set out to buy an electric heater. Living in a place with (relatively) cheap electricity, practically any electric heater is more economical than propane or oil, especially for the last 10 or 15 degrees. Most folks around here who use both tend to set the thermostat for the oil or propane heat to 55, and use the electric heat to bring it up to ~68 or so. It saves a lot of money.
The place where I lived last winter had a very good wood stove with a fan-forced heat exchanger. If I burned "Eco-Bricks" from Tractor Supply (a truly excellent product, by the way), I could easily keep the place at ~68 F even on the coldest of nights.
But after about four or five hours, I'd have to get up to refuel the wood stove, which was a drag. That's why I was looking for an electric heater -- to bridge those few hours so I wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night.
When I got to the hardware store, 1,500-watt EdenPure heaters were moving like hotcakes at $275.00 each. (The regular price is $300.00.) I looked at the heater and thought it had to be some sort of rip off. I could get a 1,500-watt fan-forced ceramic heater for about $30.00. Could the EdenPure really be that much better?
I mean, 5,118 btu / hr. is 5,118 btu / hr. no matter how you slice it, right?
The manager saw me scratching my beard and came over, and we talked for a while. He basically said he didn't know why the EdenPure heaters worked so much better than other 1,500-watt heaters, but they did. He also said if I bought one, I could return it in two weeks for a full refund if I didn't absolutely love it.
So I bought one.
I still have it.
These heaters are very strange. If you put your hand in front of an EdenPure running at max throttle, it doesn't seem to be putting out a whole lot of heat. And yet they heat a room more quickly and efficiently than any other kind of heater I've used.
I remember last winter I went down to The City around the holidays, and I left the EdenPure turned on because I wouldn't be there to maintain a fire. I also had the oil heat set to about 50, just in case the EdenPure couldn't handle it alone. Again, oil was expensive and electricity cheap; so I was hoping the electric heater would be enough.
The outside temperature had gone down to 3 F. by the time I got back at about 2:00 a.m., but the inside temperature was ~62 F., using only the EdenPure to heat ~900 sq. ft. space (I had the unused rooms closed off for the winter). The oil furnace had not even come on. And mind you, that cabin wasn't the best-insulated place I'd lived in.
Getting a 60-degree F. temperature rise in a poorly-insulated cabin using only 5,118 btu / hr. seems like a mathematical impossibility to me. And yet there it was.
More recently (as in this morning), it was about 26 degrees outside when I woke up. Except for my bedroom (where I had the EdenPure), the inside temperature was 55, where the propane heat is set.
I moved the EdenPure from my bedroom to the living room / kitchen area, which have no wall between them. Together, I'd say we're talking roughly 600 sq. ft. of floor, with a total of roughly 60 or 70 square feet of glass in the doors and windows. Then I got in the shower.
When I got out of the shower ~10 minutes later, the temperature had risen from 55 F. to 68 F. Thirteen degrees rise in 10 minutes, on 5,118 btu / hr.
So, what it is about infrared heaters that makes them work so much better than seems possible given the math?
By the way, I have no horse in the race. I don't sell these things. But I was a skeptic about them until I bought one, taking a "math is math" attitude and harboring an unspoken condescension for the people who kept telling me that these heaters could do things that seemed mathematically impossible. But I'm a believer now. I don't know how they do it, but they do.
Any engineers / physicists / really smart people here who can explain this to me?
Thanks,
-Rich
Last year, on the first cold day, I set out to buy an electric heater. Living in a place with (relatively) cheap electricity, practically any electric heater is more economical than propane or oil, especially for the last 10 or 15 degrees. Most folks around here who use both tend to set the thermostat for the oil or propane heat to 55, and use the electric heat to bring it up to ~68 or so. It saves a lot of money.
The place where I lived last winter had a very good wood stove with a fan-forced heat exchanger. If I burned "Eco-Bricks" from Tractor Supply (a truly excellent product, by the way), I could easily keep the place at ~68 F even on the coldest of nights.
But after about four or five hours, I'd have to get up to refuel the wood stove, which was a drag. That's why I was looking for an electric heater -- to bridge those few hours so I wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night.
When I got to the hardware store, 1,500-watt EdenPure heaters were moving like hotcakes at $275.00 each. (The regular price is $300.00.) I looked at the heater and thought it had to be some sort of rip off. I could get a 1,500-watt fan-forced ceramic heater for about $30.00. Could the EdenPure really be that much better?
I mean, 5,118 btu / hr. is 5,118 btu / hr. no matter how you slice it, right?
The manager saw me scratching my beard and came over, and we talked for a while. He basically said he didn't know why the EdenPure heaters worked so much better than other 1,500-watt heaters, but they did. He also said if I bought one, I could return it in two weeks for a full refund if I didn't absolutely love it.
So I bought one.
I still have it.
These heaters are very strange. If you put your hand in front of an EdenPure running at max throttle, it doesn't seem to be putting out a whole lot of heat. And yet they heat a room more quickly and efficiently than any other kind of heater I've used.
I remember last winter I went down to The City around the holidays, and I left the EdenPure turned on because I wouldn't be there to maintain a fire. I also had the oil heat set to about 50, just in case the EdenPure couldn't handle it alone. Again, oil was expensive and electricity cheap; so I was hoping the electric heater would be enough.
The outside temperature had gone down to 3 F. by the time I got back at about 2:00 a.m., but the inside temperature was ~62 F., using only the EdenPure to heat ~900 sq. ft. space (I had the unused rooms closed off for the winter). The oil furnace had not even come on. And mind you, that cabin wasn't the best-insulated place I'd lived in.
Getting a 60-degree F. temperature rise in a poorly-insulated cabin using only 5,118 btu / hr. seems like a mathematical impossibility to me. And yet there it was.
More recently (as in this morning), it was about 26 degrees outside when I woke up. Except for my bedroom (where I had the EdenPure), the inside temperature was 55, where the propane heat is set.
I moved the EdenPure from my bedroom to the living room / kitchen area, which have no wall between them. Together, I'd say we're talking roughly 600 sq. ft. of floor, with a total of roughly 60 or 70 square feet of glass in the doors and windows. Then I got in the shower.
When I got out of the shower ~10 minutes later, the temperature had risen from 55 F. to 68 F. Thirteen degrees rise in 10 minutes, on 5,118 btu / hr.
So, what it is about infrared heaters that makes them work so much better than seems possible given the math?
By the way, I have no horse in the race. I don't sell these things. But I was a skeptic about them until I bought one, taking a "math is math" attitude and harboring an unspoken condescension for the people who kept telling me that these heaters could do things that seemed mathematically impossible. But I'm a believer now. I don't know how they do it, but they do.
Any engineers / physicists / really smart people here who can explain this to me?
Thanks,
-Rich