Heaters are… Heaters

I did a deep dive into electric space heaters today and confirmed that:

  1. They’re all efficient (assuming that they work at all). “Electric heaters are 100% efficient at point of use as they convert every watt of electricity taken from the wall into usable heat, meaning there’s zero waste”.
  2. A 1500 watt ceramic heater is a 1500 watt ceramic heater. One might be a “tower” selling for $120; the other, from the same brand, might be much smaller and cheaper-looking (and sell for $25). But they produce equal amounts of heat. This leads us to…
  3. Heaters are marketed based on how much space they can heat. But that’s all smoke and mirrors. The box may say that one is for “large rooms” and other is a “desktop model” for “small rooms.” But the heat output per watt is the same.
  4. They can differ in other respects; an oil filled heater is safer, but slower (but keeps heating after you turn it off); a ceramic heater heats the air; a mica heater heats objects which then radiate heat into the room.But they all ultimately produce the same amount of heat.
  5. I don’t really even need a space heater 🙂 My house stays toasty. So I’m not sure why I got so interested in them. But it’s nice to know these things.

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