[hanzy4200]

I been hearing about these heaters for a number of years. They supposedly run much more efficiently than other heat sources. A local shop was running a end of the season sale on the Liberty brand models at 50% off. My apartment is electric heat, so my hope is that it will save me so cash on my bill. I bought it yesterday and so far it has kept the 900 square foot apartment well heated. Anyone used these before? How efficient are they?

 

[charliemeyer007]

Slick marketing hype. Electricity is like 100% converted to heat. 900 watts is 900 watts, oil filled radiator, ceramic screen, nicrome wire, etc. your power meter will not see any difference. IR can heat across open space without convection, not all that important indoors.

 

[Inazone]

After discussing the power consumption of space heaters with an electrician a couple winters ago, I replaced our existing units with "reflective radiant" heaters like this one:

http://www.soleusair.com/ms_09.html

Our primary heat is a natural gas furnace, but since we have a few rooms that get used fairly infrequently, we only heat the house to 62-68F (depending on time of day) and augment that with the reflective heaters as needed. They aren't space heaters in the traditional sense - you aim them at whatever you want to heat, such as a bed or couch (or yourself if you're really cold) instead of just trying to heat up an entire room. The power consumption is considerably lower that way, and this has been quite apparent on our winter electric bill.

 

[HandLoad]

Lil Bitty "Mr Cooker" propane Gas Heater/Cooker works great for small spaces, like One Reasonable Room (Watch Out about flammables!) , or a large Tent. Inverse Square Law applies here! If you are too close, ya get COOKED! If ya are too far away, effects are either Not perceptible, or are modest.

Benefit of this unit is that you can flip it on its side and Heat soup or Coffee/ Cook food.

 

[TheresaHPIR]

We have gas heat in our home, but the former owners had remodeled the garage into a large den...and didn't bother to provide any way to heat or cool this room, lol. We bought one of the infrared heaters to keep this room toasty last year and it worked great. And then, this year it wouldn't turn on. In all fairness, we DID buy it at Big Lots...

 

[MikeK]

I've been around space heaters since I was a kid. First the old glowing wire style, then in later years the oil filled radiator type, the ceramics, and the radiants. But none of them really seemed to put out much heat.

This winter I did an out of town gun show and stayed in a real dump of a motel. The heat was out so the rather large room was equipped with a fan forced space heater. I figured I was going to be cold in that large drafty room. But that little heater could actually get the entire room uncomfortably warm in a few minutes!

I was so impressed with it that I wrote down what it was. DeLonghi Safe Heat. Fan forced unit. Had two speeds and a thermostat.

 

[dealfinder500]

I have several heaters. My house uses fuel oil, but I mostly just use space heaters and I'm fine. Of course, I don't mind it cold and most of the time I have the temperature set to about 59 (I do turn it up if I have company!). I'll set the furnace to come on at 50, and so it usually doesn't even come on.

In the living room I have my infrared heater. I bought it last year and paid $130ish for it. It works wonders. I'm not sure if it's because it's a special type of heat (I kinda doubt it) or more because it aims the hot air at the floor instead of the air. But I love it and it's safe to use. It will usually keep the living room/dining room around 58-62 degrees.

In my dining room/library I have a DeLongi oil-filled radiator. I use this 24/7 in the coldest part of the winter when it's 0 or below outside. Otherwise I just use it in the evening or early morning when I'm going to be at the table for a bit and it's kinda cold. It just fits under the table so I'll slide it under there and it heats up the whole table, and I move it when I'm not going to be using the table.

Upstairs I have an old Honeywell hot air heater that my mom got me years ago. I use this one in my bedroom at night.

A lady at work got 2 of the infrared heaters to heat her trailer. She was upset over the electric bill, but I think that was more because she was using them to heat the trailer to the 70s.

I wouldn't use the infrared heater as your main source. But as a supplement they work very nice and I think I have saved a ton of money using them. This is my 4th winter here. I spent a ton of $ the first year on fuel oil - probably nearly $3,000. The next year I got a programmable thermostat, and I spent probably $2,000. Last year I got the infrared, and combined that it was a warmer winter, I spent less than $1,200 including the cost of the heater. This year I have spent about $300 on fuel oil, and my electric bill has increased about $40-50 a month while I'm using the heaters - not really much when you consider the money I'm not spending on fuel oil.

 

[goose3]

These used to be known as Quartz heaters (and maybe they still are); the idea is that they produce a lot of radiant heat which heats up objects moreso than the air.

Pointed at a person, it heats them up without having to heat up the entire room *and* all the thermal mass in that room--the furniture, walls, things like that.

They "work" pretty fast--unlike space heaters that must heat up the entire room's air volume, a radiant heater works almost immediately.


In the end, the better question to ask is "what's the best and most efficient way to be comfortable." These kinds of heaters can be the answer to that question, used judiciously and only when there's a person whose comfort is at issue.

 

[Mels thinkingitover]

I've got one of these for small area heating when we don't want to crank up the central unit. I know my husband doesn't have it on his inventory of practical heating methods is the shtf and we are producing our own minimal power, but the s ain't in the fan yet and sometimes a room needs warming. (Can you tell there are ongoing debates about my little heater?) Anyway, here is a link to see it, although I didn't order it from Amazon nor did I pay that much for it.


http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-TCH7090ER-Safeheat-Ceramic-Function/dp/B00440DYHI/ref=sr_1_sc_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1364045855&sr=8-3-spell&keywords=dehlongi+safe+heat

 

[Emerald Eyes]

I started a similar thread on here a few months ago. My Mobile Home furnace took a dump. I purchased 6 electric space heaters (4 different models). The Honeywell Oil Radiator gets my 1st vote! The Delonghi ceramic oscillating gets my 2nd vote, because it "spreads" the heat around. I have one of each in my Mstr Bdrm, because it's a very large room.

 

[PSYOP Soldier]

We have converted my garage/man cave into a yoga retreat, and use one of these to great effect to keep it at 70 for wifeys yogis...

http://www.amazon.com/Duraflame-Infrared-Rolling-Mantel-20IF100GRA-C202/dp/B004Y999GY

 

[hiwall1]

Post number two is the correct answer to the age-old question on electric heaters.
You can buy any electric plug-in heater and watt-for-watt it will heat the same amount of space as any other electric heater. 1500 watts of power will produce 5120 BTUs of heat.
End of story