electric panel heaters in my experience use power to prevent moisture in the switch gear. Yes they perform the function if your in that kind of need.
The heaters that I have seen are usually 1200 watts per section. They are sometimes set up on t-stats some time on all of the time.
ROI ??????? You must be talking about something other that what I am.
Space heaters, whatever the type, ARE useful for heating that little niche that always feels cold, or where the heat just won't reach for whatever reason; maybe a room is just too far from the furnace to get good heat to it, say, or a temporary fix for some other problem. I've used them now and again and still have a few around, kero and electric types. No way however, can electricity compare with gas, oil or other sources of heating except possibly some catalytics. Electricity will ALWAYS cost more to heat with. Space heaters, BTW, are usually to heat just that: A "space", not a room. Convection is OK but not a great method of moving heat around a room. For that you need fans of some type.
I took a brief look at the site, and I'll say it only reinforced my opinion, which isn't good, of electric space heaters. It's 400W they claimed. Well, you can easily imagine how well it would heat by replacing the unit, mentally, with four 100 watt bulbs. Same heat output or a trifle more from the bulbs. A watt is a watt, and a btu is a btu. Efficiency cannot be anything but high when you talk about putting elecricity through a resistive element, so they're no more efficient than any other electric heat source, nor four hundred watt bulbs. I find a lot of their hype pretty meaningless, even with a ten by ten room "properly insulated" or however they phrased it. eg, What was the outdoor temp, how many windows, what rate of air exchange, and so on?.
At any rate, a btu being a btu, and that being a measure of the heat given off by any object, that's the only accurate comparison one can really make. To generate a btu with electricity and a btu with oil are two scales which at this point, unless you can get commercial hi-usage rates, is not going to come close to being a savings of any kind. Their hoopla is BS. The whole web site looks spammy, IMO.
FWIW,
Pop
Nonono. You pay the same per kilowatt-hour of electrical energy.
Nick
Does anyone have any experience with these? Do they work as advertised? How is the electricity consumption and did they offer any return on the investment as far as decreased oil/gas usage?
These appear to be electrical resistance heaters in just another form. Even though electrical resisitance heating is 100% efficient, it is generally the most expensive method of heating in most parts of the world. You pay the same per kilowatt whether it is a radiant heater, or an electric oil-filled convection heater or a baseboard electric heater on the wall. If these are sized smaller than normal heaters, then yes, the cost and consumption will be less but so will the heat output.
Beachcomber
The cost of resistance heat is the same no matter what shape it is in. The panels may be very convenient and assuming they spot heat well, they will allow you to use less total energy and still feel equally or more warm.
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