amish power surge space heater

DeanRob · 01-02-2008, 10:48 AM

New to posts. has anyone purchased the powers urge space heater?

khorrell · 02-22-2008, 08:38 AM

I have been wondering the same thing. Surely, the advertisements are "too good to be true."

Julie Rains · 02-22-2008, 01:25 PM

I haven't heard about that kind. My father-in-law has been raving about the heater on the Paul Harvey show. I think this is the kind. He is way frugal with his heating bill, so much that I used to bring my own heater when we visited!

Megan · 02-22-2008, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julie Rains

I haven't heard about that kind. My father-in-law has been raving about the heater on the Paul Harvey show. I think this is the kind. He is way frugal with his heating bill, so much that I used to bring my own heater when we visited!

My parents bought me an EdenPure heater last winter as a gift when my heating bills were through the roof and I was still freezing in my home all the time. It's great! I've always been a little wary of space heaters, but it doesn't get hot to the touch at all, and it puts off a nice amount of heat. It was a great way to keep my heating bills down.

purplefdu · 02-22-2008, 03:24 PM

We have a Bionaire parabolic I bought about 5 yrs ago from BJs. My husband woud sleep with it in bed if he could. Its a rather nice radiant heat without blowing which gets annoying. We don't normally look into buying a different type since he likes it so much and I used to heat my entire room at my parents with it (no heater in the attic).

Kathryn · 02-23-2008, 09:43 AM

The thing is, there is only so many BTUs you can get out of a kilowatt of electricity. All radiant electrical heaters are extremely efficient at turning electrical energy into heat (no heat lost up a chimney, no moving parts), so any electrical heater consuming the same wattage will produce the same amount of BTUs and cost the same amount to run per hour. In most parts of the U.S., it is much more expensive to produce the same no. of BTUs with electricity than it is with gas (Pacific NW may be an exception due to extremely cheap hydropower electric).

The only way to save money by using electric space heaters rather than running your furnace is if you have a lot of unused space in your house that you can effectively forego heating by simply running the furnace very little and heating only a much smaller portion of the house with a fairly minimal amount of space heating.

Let's say, for example, that your heating bills are $300/mo to run your gas furnace. if you turn your thermostat back from 70 to 60, you'll save about $0.16/hour. But if you run a 1500-watt heater to heat up the space you're using, it will cost you around $0.12/hr in electricity. If you need to run more than one space heater because you've got multiple people in your household, it will cost you more money to run those two or more space heaters than it would to simply heat the entire house to a comfortable temperature.

The manufacturers of these "space aged space heaters" often imply that a 750 watt heater is enough to heat a small room, or that a 1500 watt heater will heat (as the heat surge site implies) "325 sq ft"--this is simply not true if it is the sole source of heat and outside temperatures are below 50 degrees or so. If you are heating the rest of your house to 60, then it is enough, but don't be fooled into thinking you can simply shut off your furnace entirely, run a 1500-watt space heater, and have a 325-sq ft living room be anything approaching comfortable for normal folks.

khorrell · 02-23-2008, 02:05 PM

Wow, Kathryn, you are a font of knowledge on the subject. Perhaps you can help me with this problem:

We live in a split foyer house, where you enter the front door and immediately must choose to go up or down. The downstairs is regularly quite cold, while parts of the upstairs can be toasty. Would a radiant electric heater be a good choice for warming up the downstairs without turning the upstairs into a sauna? For now, the best I can do is turn my heating system to "fan on" instead of "fan auto," which at least seems to keep the warm air circulating from the top to the bottom instead of pooling upstairs. (And if I'm wrong about that, please let me know!)

Thanks for the wisdom!

Kathryn · 02-23-2008, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khorrell

Wow, Kathryn, you are a font of knowledge on the subject.

My husband is an HVAC mechanic and a talkative guy to boot--I get to list to a lot of this stuff!

Quote:

Perhaps you can help me with this problem:

We live in a split foyer house, where you enter the front door and immediately must choose to go up or down. The downstairs is regularly quite cold, while parts of the upstairs can be toasty. Would a radiant electric heater be a good choice for warming up the downstairs without turning the upstairs into a sauna? For now, the best I can do is turn my heating system to "fan on" instead of "fan auto," which at least seems to keep the warm air circulating from the top to the bottom instead of pooling upstairs. (And if I'm wrong about that, please let me know!)

Thanks for the wisdom!

I talked to him about this--he said it's a really common problem (we've got a similar issue with our first floor vs. finished walkout basement). He says you can try closing off the vents in the upstairs half way (or closing off vents in rooms that are used rarely all the way and leaving ones in main rooms open)--that should help improve the situation somewhat. The reason for not throttling back the upstairs vents more than that is because the furnace won't be able to move the same volume of air through the system and if the airflow is cut off too much, the safety on the furnace can trip, and it's possible the furnace could be damaged.

If it's an ongoing problem, something like a ventless gas heater or even a supplemental combustion stove (woodstove, pellet/corn stove) might be a good investment, and if you do any major remodeling, installing an a gas-heated in-floor hydronic heating system (uses circulating water heated by gas) is an excellent way to get good bang for your heating bux.

Kathryn · 02-23-2008, 04:57 PM

Oh yeah, he also said if you restrict the airflow like this, it's doubly important to make sure your furnace filters are changed regularly (once a month is best). I actually have friends who are a little underinformed about home maintenance and didn't realize they needed to change the filter, and their furnace cracked after a few years and had to be replaced. Filters are cheap! Furnaces are expensive!

pidge66 · 03-01-2008, 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kathryn

Oh yeah, he also said if you restrict the airflow like this, it's doubly important to make sure your furnace filters are changed regularly (once a month is best). I actually have friends who are a little underinformed about home maintenance and didn't realize they needed to change the filter, and their furnace cracked after a few years and had to be replaced. Filters are cheap! Furnaces are expensive!

Well said. I just recently became a believer myself. Bought a new townhouse in June '07. The builder mentioned about furnace filters, especially the first few months due to construction dusts etc. Then I bumped into the HVAC guy who were servicing next door. I asked him about filters. He said it's the most important thing about maintaining a furnace. I heard them but I didn't really take them too seriously.

Just 2 weeks ago my room which used to be toasty compared to the others didn't feel toasty any more. Then a few days later I realized the furnace filter is 2 months overdue. I changed the filter, and VOILA, the room is toasty again!

BTW, my parents house had the filter removed many years ago. I'm wondering if that would cause any problem, to the furnace.

01-02-2008, 10:48 AM	#1
DeanRob Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1 Reputation: (10)	amish power surge space heater New to posts. has anyone purchased the powers urge space heater?

02-22-2008, 01:25 PM	#3
Julie Rains Wise Bread Blogger Join Date: May 2007 Location: North Carolina Posts: 233 Reputation: (66)	I haven't heard about that kind. My father-in-law has been raving about the heater on the Paul Harvey show. I think this is the kind. He is way frugal with his heating bill, so much that I used to bring my own heater when we visited! __________________ Wise Bread and Parenting Squad blogger

02-22-2008, 03:24 PM	#5
purplefdu Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Eliot, ME USA Posts: 457 Reputation: (27)	We have a Bionaire parabolic I bought about 5 yrs ago from BJs. My husband woud sleep with it in bed if he could. Its a rather nice radiant heat without blowing which gets annoying. We don't normally look into buying a different type since he likes it so much and I used to heat my entire room at my parents with it (no heater in the attic). __________________ Homeward Bound Puppy Blog&Shades of Purple Blog best general coupon site & organic grocery coupon help

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02-22-2008, 08:38 AM	#2
khorrell Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 336 Reputation: (35)	I have been wondering the same thing. Surely, the advertisements are "too good to be true."

02-23-2008, 09:43 AM	#6
Kathryn Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 103 Reputation: (17)	The thing is, there is only so many BTUs you can get out of a kilowatt of electricity. All radiant electrical heaters are extremely efficient at turning electrical energy into heat (no heat lost up a chimney, no moving parts), so any electrical heater consuming the same wattage will produce the same amount of BTUs and cost the same amount to run per hour. In most parts of the U.S., it is much more expensive to produce the same no. of BTUs with electricity than it is with gas (Pacific NW may be an exception due to extremely cheap hydropower electric). The only way to save money by using electric space heaters rather than running your furnace is if you have a lot of unused space in your house that you can effectively forego heating by simply running the furnace very little and heating only a much smaller portion of the house with a fairly minimal amount of space heating. Let's say, for example, that your heating bills are $300/mo to run your gas furnace. if you turn your thermostat back from 70 to 60, you'll save about $0.16/hour. But if you run a 1500-watt heater to heat up the space you're using, it will cost you around $0.12/hr in electricity. If you need to run more than one space heater because you've got multiple people in your household, it will cost you more money to run those two or more space heaters than it would to simply heat the entire house to a comfortable temperature. The manufacturers of these "space aged space heaters" often imply that a 750 watt heater is enough to heat a small room, or that a 1500 watt heater will heat (as the heat surge site implies) "325 sq ft"--this is simply not true if it is the sole source of heat and outside temperatures are below 50 degrees or so. If you are heating the rest of your house to 60, then it is enough, but don't be fooled into thinking you can simply shut off your furnace entirely, run a 1500-watt space heater, and have a 325-sq ft living room be anything approaching comfortable for normal folks.

02-23-2008, 02:05 PM	#7
khorrell Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 336 Reputation: (35)	Wow, Kathryn, you are a font of knowledge on the subject. Perhaps you can help me with this problem: We live in a split foyer house, where you enter the front door and immediately must choose to go up or down. The downstairs is regularly quite cold, while parts of the upstairs can be toasty. Would a radiant electric heater be a good choice for warming up the downstairs without turning the upstairs into a sauna? For now, the best I can do is turn my heating system to "fan on" instead of "fan auto," which at least seems to keep the warm air circulating from the top to the bottom instead of pooling upstairs. (And if I'm wrong about that, please let me know!) Thanks for the wisdom!

02-23-2008, 04:57 PM	#9
Kathryn Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 103 Reputation: (17)	Oh yeah, he also said if you restrict the airflow like this, it's doubly important to make sure your furnace filters are changed regularly (once a month is best). I actually have friends who are a little underinformed about home maintenance and didn't realize they needed to change the filter, and their furnace cracked after a few years and had to be replaced. Filters are cheap! Furnaces are expensive!