Portable Electric Heaters

[BlinnPR]

Any recommendations on portable electric heaters? Like something that can heat a 500 sq ft work room.

Cheers, Steven

[Mikepier]

Just keep in mind most portable space heaters are 1500 watts. Which if you do the 10W per sq foot rule should be plenty for your requirements. They make fan forced models, to the oil filled radiator models, it's your preference. Also these heaters use about 12.75 amps at full load which means make sure the outlet can handle it. Preferably a dedicated outlet or an outlet on a 20A breaker. A 15 A breaker would work so as long as your not using anything else that would trip the breaker.

[DerbyDad03]

I have a 1500 watt fan forced heater that I use in my shop and garage on occasion. I've often wonder how expensive these are to run.

I always picture money flying out of my window whenever I turn it on for a few hours. Am I being rediculous?

[Sharp Dressed Man]

I have a 1500 watt fan forced heater that I use in my shop and garage on occasion. I've often wonder how expensive these are to run.

I always picture money flying out of my window whenever I turn it on for a few hours. Am I being rediculous?

Electric costs vary sharply by where you live but the US average per KWH is

8.83 cents. Your 1500 watt heater would cost around 13 cents an hour to run assuming you're paying average rates.

[Claude Hopper]

Get a 3500 watt 220 volt electric heater and run it with your generator.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I live in one of those sharply variable rates and pay 18¢ a kW so it would cost me 27¢ an hour to operate. Not bad if you need it a couple of hours a week, but if you need it for hours a day it can be very expensive.

As for the OP, what is the temperature of the work room when unheated? If you are just taking the chill off, it may be OK. If it is unheated in a northern climate, it would be laughable to turn it on. My detached partially insulated garage has about a 30 degree rise with 30,000 Btu.

[Mikepier]

My mistake. At 500 sq ft, you need at least 5000W of heat. A 1500W space heater is not going to cut it.

You need to look at something with fossil fuel ( gas,oil, propane), or a 220V heat source which depending on your utility rates could be expensive.

[ransley]

Nobody knows where you are, how cold it is, or how well insulated the place is. Radiant Quarts heaters heat objects , not the air, so if you are in one general area it will heat you

[Jim Elbrecht]

5000 will maintain the heat- but in my garage I like to go out when the ambient is 20 and bring it to at least 50 degrees in a half hour or so. Add a little breeze, and my 50000btu torpedo heater is barely enough.

Jim

[Stormin Mormon]

Utilities have different prices for electricity. You can likely find on your power bill the price per kilowatt hour. If my math is correct, figure 1 1/2 times the KWH price, every hour. So, if you're paying 20 cents, figure 30 cents an hour to run the heater. That KWH nets you about 5,000 BTU.

A gas grill tank and infared heater could be a lot less expensive. Near me, propane is about a buck a pound if you bring the tank in for refil. A pound is 21,500 BTU if memory serves.

[ransley]

1.5x the price? you figure 30c hr. Take the bill amount divided by kwh use. At your figure thats .20c kwh, and I dont think its that high anywhere in the lower 50 for 1500w, or is it that high im at 0.14 kwh the heater would cost me 0.22 cents an hr, and gas would be 1/2 the price for me.

[jmeehan]

They all produce the same heat per watt. The ones with fans will heat up a little faster and will distribute the heat a little better, the ones without fans will take a little longer to warm up at the start and will cool down slower. I fan types tend to be a little cheaper and they tend to not last as long.