Anyone have any experience with a wall mounted electrical convection heater (1500Watt/120V plug in type is what I purchased)
It's for a basement room that is about 4 C cooler than the rest of the house, despite having two ducts from the furnace. Room dimensions are
19' x 10'.
Wife wants wall mounted so the kiddies don't touch it, as the room is a kid's playroom. It's Canada so this heater will be used at least 3 months a year, maybe for a couple of hours a day.
Any other electric heater options people have to offer? 240volt heaters might be an option if I can justify calling an electrician to hook up the line to the panel (my wife will not let me touch the panel)
Basically I'm looking for the best heat output per dollar from an electric heat source for one room.
Adding more duct runs from he gas furnace is NOT an option at this time.
When it comes to electric heat, they are ALL 100% efficient. The only difference is 110 volt heaters put a little bit more heat into the walls where the wires run
there is a direct relationship from Watts to BTU/Hr so not any real difference among various heaters...
EXCEPT
you may find that instead of a convection heater, a RADIATIVE HEAT type heater user less energy may allow the kids to feel warmer without actually heating up all the air. Also these can be mounted high out of reach and the "shine" down and you feel the heat on your skin.
I've heard that there is no real efficiency difference, 1500 watts makes
5,200 BTU per hour. Not sure how true this is. When I did heating (when the USA had an economy) the boss and I put in some duct booster fans, on heating ducts. That might be answer, to increase the air flow.
This isn't what we installed, but the concept is good:
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It's for a basement room that is about 4 C cooler than the rest of the house, despite having two ducts from the furnace. Room dimensions are
19' x 10'.
Wife wants wall mounted so the kiddies don't touch it, as the room is a kid's playroom. It's Canada so this heater will be used at least 3 months a year, maybe for a couple of hours a day.
Any other electric heater options people have to offer? 240volt heaters might be an option if I can justify calling an electrician to hook up the line to the panel (my wife will not let me touch the panel)
Basically I'm looking for the best heat output per dollar from an electric heat source for one room.
Adding more duct runs from he gas furnace is NOT an option at this time.
I'm testing it today, partly to see the cost of using it, and partly to see how quick it can heat the room.
I almost burned my self after it was on for an hour, but this heater has a thermostat and the thermostat can never be accurate cause of it's proximity to the heat source...
To size the heater properly you would need to do some heat loss calculations based on the size of the room, the number of windows/doors, insulation values, ceiling height, etc. However, a good rule of thumb for electric heat in a space with average insulation and eight foot ceilings is about 10 watts per square foot. For your 19'x10' room you would need a heater that puts out at least 1900 watts.
Your 1500 watt heater would be undersized for that room if it is the only source of heat. Basically, the heater would run all the time because there would be more heat leaving the room through the walls/doors/windows than you are putting in with the heater. If you are just adding this as additional heat to a room that is already heated, you might be able to get by with it since it isn't carrying the full heat load.
Based on the description in your other post it sounds like you have a "natural convection" electric radiant heater. Basically it's an electric heating element with metal fins to warm the air as it passes through the heater naturally.
Since hot air rises, these are usually placed on the floor against the wall, which is why they are usually called baseboard heaters. I suspect they would not work as well mounted high on the wall since you would not have the natural convection currents from the rising warm air. It would probably just warm the air near the ceiling and be cold near the floor.
However, most electric baseboard heaters have outside coverings so they won't cause burns if you touch them. Unless the kiddies stick their fingers in the openings, of course. :) You could always build some kind of screen around the heater to keep the kiddies away.
We use fan-forced electric wall heaters. My favorite style are the Pic-A- Watt heaters made by King Electric:
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We heat our entire house using these heaters in each room. It's nice because each room can be set to a different temperature. Also, if one heater fails, you can still stay warm in the other rooms while you repair it.
While these do best mounted low on the wall (about 12" from the floor), they will work mounted higher up also. I installed several of these in my in-laws house mounted over the interior doorways. They have a small house with lots of furniture and too much clutter, so this was the only mounting option we had available. Because the fan circulates the air in the room, they work fine for heating. However, you do hear the fan more mounted up high than you do when they are mounted near the floor. Also, they have nine foot ceilings so there's still a couple of feet between the heater and ceiling. You might want to mount it lower if you have eight foot ceilings.
1500 watts at 120V will be the same amount of heat as 1500 watts at 240V. The main difference is the current the heater would draw.
1500 watts at 120V uses 12.5 amps.
1500 watts at 240V uses 6.25 amps.
In simple terms, the higher the current the larger the wires need to be to carry the load. You lose efficiency with 120V because the higher current means more heat loss in the homes wiring. However, for a single plug-in electric heater, it is unlikely you would notice any difference in your electric bill.
If you're wiring in a dedicated wall heater, go with 240V. If you're using a plug-in heater, 120V is fine.
Interesting idea, and one that I think the OP should consider instead of the electric baseboard heat idea.
Or, if going with electric baseboard heat, consider using a "HYDRONIC" electric baseboard heater such as this one:
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They cost more than regular electric baseboard heaters, but people say the heat feels more even and less "dry"; plus they are much cooler to the touch eliminating the burn factor.
I put these "hydronic" electric baseboard heating units in an unfinished third floor attic space that I refinished and made into a living area. The ones I used are 240 volt units, but they come in 120 volt. The higher one-time cost of the heating units themselves was well worth it. I really didn't want those regular type burning-hot electric baseboard heating units -- especially since this was for a property that I rented out.
I though duct booster fans were a good idea to boost airflow too, even after I installed it. That changed when I bought an airflow meter and did some measuring. I bought one of the squirrel cage types, where you cut an opening in a rectangular duct and the blower fastens to it with the upper part of the blower inside the duct. I measured airflow coming out of the relevant registers with the fan on and with it off. Virtually no difference.
I have no experience with the type that look like a regular fan and go inside round ducts, so don't know about them.
I did a little testing this weekend and have opted to go with a small fan forced heater instead.
The natural convection heater (link shown below) did not cut it. The principle was great but it ended up directing the heating up the wall and ceiling instead of the middle of the room. It would have been a great idea with a programmable thermostat and maybe a low speed fan
Instead I tried a fan forced 1500W heater (link shown below) that sucked cold air from the floor and dispersed it up and outward a few feet. Because the warm air hits you instantly feel warmer and it doesn't just hit walls so I think with that heater it can be set for a lower temperature.
I found by using my kill-a-watt and a thermometer that it would have cost me about 2 cents an hour more (3 cents during expensive hours) to achieve the desired ambient temp with the natural convection instead of forced fan.
But I have no idea how much they cost. I think the cheapest is maybe $40 Canadian but no clue how to search for them. I'll want to avoid the cheapest of course
Also related to the cost is tearing out the bulkhead/stucco ceiling where to get at the particular ductwork. That's actually the real work, patching it (stucco) up after.
I considered one of these for a bedroom above my garage, esp during air conditioning season where our bedroom was under sun about 15 hours a day and the garage underneath was heating up to 30 to 30 degrees. I found the need went away instantly when I installed a new quality insulated garage door so I did not do any research on these fans after that.
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