My conclusion about space heaters after experimenting with a ceramic heater: they are expensive to run, inefficient, and ineffective. My downstairs air conditioner uses 540 watts. It cools the entire downstairs (600 sq ft?) pretty well even in a heat wave, lowering the temperature from 95 exterior to 65 interior. The space heater uses 1200 watts, and it did a poor job of heating even my small office (120 sq ft) in September and October. When the outside temperature was 65 during the day and 40 at night, the temperature in the house was between 55 and 59 all day on most days. The space heater raised the temperature in my office perhaps 5 degrees. So it uses 3 times more electricity than the air conditioner, but the AC is effective for 6 times more space and the AC's impact on the temperature is 6 times greater.
The wood stove solved the whole problem within one hour. So perhaps my original question was moot. I abandoned the idea of getting a large infrared space heater.
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