amish power surge space heater

[lucille]

Originally Posted by purplefdu

There's a piece on this in the Parade from this Sunday's paper. I would have thought it a scam if I hadn't heard about it here. Still sounds odd as none of the Amish should know enough about wiring to be able to make something like that....*shakes head*

The TV commercials carefully word that the "Amish" make the wood surround. They fail to mention who is building the heater portion. I am surprised someone hasn't sued for misrepresentation but that might not be a motivation for Amish communities.

I do think the marketing is misleading.

[lucille]

Originally Posted by khorrell

I have had great success replacing regular curtains with thermals, or even with quilts. My Mom likes to hang heavy things behind her regular curtains during the winter.

I have been making heavy curtains for various windows in our house. I made one set out of some heavy faux suede upholstery fabric backed with brocade. The other set is a pair of velvet curtains lined with some heavy wool I had on hand. The velvet & wool ones we put on the downstairs patio doors. It makes a night and day difference in the warmth in the lower level. We can tell the difference with the other pair upstairs also.

I was looking at our electric bills and they were down considerably from last year but the temp was largely the same. It has also been steadily going down. Were not 100% sure why but the only change we can think of is the drapes.

[kav122]

I think that it was somewhere in these forums that someone mentioned: after you use your oven and turn it off, open the door. Seriously, I couldn't believe that I never thought of that. It doesn't bring up the heat significantly, but it does help when we are eating dinner. Also, I have a deLonghi (sp?) dragon safeheat in my boy's room. We only keep it on 1 right now, but it never gets hot enough to the touch that he could burn himself. The room is normal to small-sized and it heats it up plenty. That way we can turn the heat (gas) down. The increase in the electric bill is way less than the decrease in the gas, so it has worked out so far. We'll see as it gets colder and we turn the heater up to 2 or 3. From everything I have heard, like Kathryn said, a heater is a heater, and it's efficiency is based on what you are looking for and the BTUs are the same. I went to Consumer Reports, which is why I decided on a deLonghi.

[redambrosia]

I saw an add for this in my latest National Geographic. It produced so much cognitive dissonance in me that I had to read the entire add (which wasn't easy, even for my young eyes, their font was weird and very small). But I figured out that the Amish folk just make the wooden surround part.

I guess even Amish folk need to make money, if only to pay land taxes >.>

[lucille]

Originally Posted by redambrosia

I saw an add for this in my latest National Geographic. It produced so much cognitive dissonance in me that I had to read the entire add (which wasn't easy, even for my young eyes, their font was weird and very small). But I figured out that the Amish folk just make the wooden surround part.

I guess even Amish folk need to make money, if only to pay land taxes >.>

The TV commercial for the company selling these was on last night. I couldn't help but notice some very odd things about the "Amish" in this commercial that just didn't look right. Maybe the Amish out this way and the few I have run into in Indiana dress differently than the supposed Amish in the commercial. I didn't think sports sweat shirts and designer jeans were typical Amish clothing choices. At least they are not around here. I think the Amish involvement claim may also be total bunk.

[Julie Rains]

Just in case anyone wants to know, many Amish make awesome furniture -- I have a couple of all-wood pieces with incredibly durable construction.

[Philip Brewer]

Our living room furniture was made by an Amish place in central Illinois. We're very pleased with it.

In Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson talks about "grandmother furniture," by which he means the sort of furniture that will last for several generations. It costs more (although the Amish stuff doesn't cost a lot more), but it's very cost effective.

[khorrell]

Now that I've figured out the Amish part, I'm wondering about the heater. I would love a good space heater. This one claims to use something like 9 cents of electricity per hour...I'm not even sure that is possible.

[Kathryn]

Originally Posted by khorrell

Now that I've figured out the Amish part, I'm wondering about the heater. I would love a good space heater. This one claims to use something like 9 cents of electricity per hour...I'm not even sure that is possible.

If your electricity is $.06/kwh (1000 kw of usage for one hour), then *any* 1500 kw appliance will cost $.09/hr to run. Unfortunately, electricity costs more than $.06/kwh in most places (we're paying $.12/kwh for "green" electric).

Any electric heater consuming the same amount of electricity will put out the same amount of heat. The main differences, then are how the heat is moved about:

(a) convection, such as an oil-filled radiator, which uses the natural flow of heat to circulate heat throughout the room;
(b) fan-blown heaters; and
(c) radiant heaters, which use a heating element that is a special type of light bulb that emits infrared energy; this transforms into heat energy when it strikes a surface.

The first two types will heat up an entire room: an oil-filled radiator may take longer, but it provides even heat, is silent, and the heaters themselves are inexpensive and extremely reliable.

The third type of heater will only heat up surfaces that it touches, and can be good for "spot heating" (for example, a basement office where you're sitting in one place most of the time). They generally run at a lower wattage and will warm you instantly the moment you turn them on, so if that's the type of heat you need, you may get a good comfort level at 400 or 800 watts rather than 1000 or 1500, and may not need to run it for as long. But many types of radiant heaters create a greater fire hazard if left unattended. And they produce a lot of radiation in the visible light spectrum (aka, they really glow!) and so would be a poor choice for heating a bedroom at night, for example.

So, the first thing to do is decide what type of heating is most suitable for your needs, and then beyond that it's a question of features and reliability, because any fan-type heater running at 1500 watts, for example, is going to produce the same amount and type of heat. That's the reason why Energy Star does not certify electric space heaters--because none of them are more or less efficient than the others.

Here's a calculator to help figure out how many BTU's you need to heat a given space: http://hearth.com/calc/btucalc.html. An electric heater will produce 3412 BTUs per kw.

[khorrell]

Wow, Kathryn, you know a lot about space heaters! I've been working on a post for a couple of days and you've explained it all better than I have in several rewrites.

I also appreciate the link to the BTU calculator.

It seems that I have more math to do before I can figure out what would be best for us.