Thread: Infrared heat
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Old 09-06-2022, 08:20 AM   #17
thinkxingu
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Originally Posted by LikeLakes View Post
Radiant floor heat is awesome. Not fast response like forced hot air or hydronic baseboards, but nice level heat.

One misunderstood thing about heating and efficiency is that each time you go to heat a room, after letting it cool down, you are heating all the furnishings in that room. So if you turn down heat (or turn it off) at night and it drops to say 58 degrees, when you go to heat it in the morning the furniture, desks, everything has cooled off and you spend the first part of the heating cycle re-heating all those furnishings. In commercial office property we get tenants that think they are helping by turning down heat at night, we politely ask them to leave the heat where they want it, or click it down 2-3 degrees at most (some like that burst of heat when they arrive in the morning and turn it up), to turn it down more than that is actually less efficient. This assumes decently insulated, reasonably efficient heating systems.

That doesn't apply to space heaters so sorry if I'm off topic. Can we agree that an electric resistance element, whether in a fan driven space heater, oil filled radiant space heater, or infrared space heater, are the least efficient ways to heat a space?
As I understand it, electrical resistance heaters are actually the most efficient as 100% of the energy becomes heat. The issue is cost of energy vs. other sources, right, making it a question of economical vs. efficient?

We have a 100% electric house—electric stove, water heater, dryer, and all electric baseboard heat (other than wood stoves up and down). The ONLY reason I'm investigating heating alternatives is that electricity costs have increased beyond other energy sources.

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