A cold-wave came through Central Florida last night. Perhaps the windows should have been closed last evening!
At 7-AM--and 60°--the little convection space heater got switched "on" in the bedroom. After 20 minutes, the bedroom got toasty at 80°, so it got turned down. One minute later, the whole neighborhood lost power!
Fortunately, there's a
radiant 1873 "parlor stove" in the living room that takes wood or coal.
(Coal--hard to start--burns too hot).
Quote:
Originally Posted by SailinAway
I spent a lot of time studying this today and didn't come to a conclusion. There are a lot of claims about the Dr998 infrared heater heating 1000 sq ft with the same 1500 watts that a ceramic heater uses to heat 300 sq ft---But also many reviews that say that claim is exaggerated. Reviewers who dismantled the DR998 found that it consists of 1 small quartz tube and 1 PTC element, whereas other brands have 4 to 6 quartz tubes. They report early failure of the quartz tube. Another concern is the long time it takes infrared to heat a room---45 minutes to raise the temperature 5 degrees.
I did finally come across an explanation that helped me understand infrared heat: you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face in the winter, above the air temperature. That's after the sun's infrared rays traverse 93 million miles of space at minus 454 degrees.
I did buy a full tank of oil last week for $4.29 a gallon. Very glad I did that, as the price rose immediately afterward. Still trying to get my wood split to save the oil for December through February.
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Humanity can't rely on the sun for radiant heat--look at Greenland!
This reminded me that I may have owned every form of plug-in space heater ever made! (Plus one Kerosene
radiant heater, and one propane
radiant heater).
I may have donated my
ceramic heater--a very disappointing manner of heat--IMHO.
The
stand-up quartz radiant heater is too hot to be near and has only one setting. When the thermostat kicks in, it makes a startling sound like a welder sparking.
The
corded baseboard heater is OK. It does take up a lot of floor space, but you can sit right next to it and be comfy.
The trouble with convection heaters is that any heat they produce rises to the ceiling and is eventually lost. Our industries have crafted an expensive way to move about rooms heated to a comfortable "thermocline".
My 1950s 800-watt
radiant heater "dish" at our Wolfeboro cottage is the clear winner. Instead of mounting it at 8 feet above the floor, I should have had it professionally wired and bolted at the peak of the ceiling (at 16-feet). Left "on" while sleeping, the largest room in the cottage gets warmed with only 800 watts. Everything affected within the arc of the reflector is warmed.
A warm floor is a nice way to greet an Autumn morning.
