As a single senior and not very handy, I still get lots of useful information from this group. So whats the story with the Heat Surge that I just saw an infomercial about? Is it a scam? Does it actually save money? Has anyone tried one? Thanks for any help.
SCAM
It is the same as the $20 space heater from Wal Mart or Lowes, just in a fancy case.
Yes, it will save money if you just heat the room you are in and let the rest of the house be very cold. If you want to live the winter in one room, you may come out ahead. 1500 watts of heat is still 1500 watts of heat be it from a cheap space heater or a fancy $300 one. No more, no less. Your choice.
This sounds like a trade name for some undefined gadget
-- an electric heater? If you identify it with more detail you may get useful replies. Sources like local newspapers sometimes print reviews of how many thousand BTU you get per dollar from competing sources (electricity, gas, etc.) at local prices. These differ, e.g. in Louisiana and New England.
snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote the following:
It's just a lot more expensive than any other 1500 btu space heater. You use in one room at a time. You may save money if you turn off your central heating system and drag the space heater around into each room where you are going to spend some time. The Amish are not known for their electrical innovations, but they do work wonders with wood. The heater itself is made in China, but so are most other products these days. Go to your local hardware store and buy a cheap $100 space heater. You'll find it a lot easier dragging it around the house.
Rip-off. It puts out as much heat at the same cost/btu as a $20 WalMart heater, but it will cost you $337+. It's is a lot prettier though.
Seems all of the talking heads are pimping this with really convincing well written scripts.
It is a cheap ChiCom heater that uses "new age infrared technology" covered with an authentic "Amish made" mantle...
You will feel more comfortable just looking at the picture on the web site:
Furniture is expensive. Good Amish furniture is quite expensive (though there is nothing saying that this is "good").
Amish make furniture to stay warm. Amish aren't as backwards as Europeons would like to think.
There IS some benefit to this type of heater. I bought a Comfort Furnace a few days ago. It is a clone of the Eden Pure but looks more refined. After getting my great room warm in the morning with the furnace (I keep it off at night), the unit will maintain a comfortable level throughout the day. The outside temperature is in the thirties. The ceiling fans are not needed. I have 30 days to try it and if I don't like it it can be returned. So far I like it but the real test will come when it gets colder. There is a slight warm spot directly in front but there are no cold spots. My room is 22' X 30' with an 18' cathedral ceiling. Last winter I used two "radiator type" heaters and I had to run the two ceiling fans to bring the heat down.
---MIKE---
George wrote in news:ib3rsj$5fk$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
Back in the summer, newspapers and magazines carried full-page ads for these things; they were dense with text and details, plus a photo of authentic Amish in an authentic Amish woodshop making the authentic Amish mantles for those cheap Red Chinese electric heaters.
I got the impression they were pitching primarily to retired people with lots of time on their hands.
They call us the English, because amongst themselves they speak a German dialect.
For the most part the Amish rules are set locally, the main thing is no connection to the outside world. They use electricity, but not off the grid. Flashlights when I knew them had a 2 battery max rule. They all had LED flashlights, they liked looking at pics on my digital.
Some Amish clans have gotten quite progressive, I ran across one couple driving a nice pickup truck. I've seen others with digital cameras, but this is not usual.
Some of the rules can be odd, the Amish I knew had to fell trees with a handsaw, but they could cut them up with power tools back in the barn. Go figure...
The Amish I knew had no particular woodworking skills. Nice people. Mostly a tough life.
Jeff
On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:46:00 +0000 (UTC), Tegger wrote Re Re: Heat Surge:
...and not much common sense.
Most things made by Amish people in the Lancaster area of PA are pieces of crap. I suppose it's the ones that make their own rules that put out poor products but they stamp everything "Made By Amish in Amish Country", and suckers buy the crap. For a long time they made a lot of mobile homes at a factory in the area, again crap. Traveling through the Lancaster area you will find many Amish homes with electric and phone lines, but there are also a good amount who aren't on the grid.
It varies, even locally. The place we bought our furniture, as you note, used modern electric-powered woodworking tools but weren't attached to the grid. They had a bank of diesel generators in the barn. They also used electric lights. Other places used gas lights and farmed out the woodworking, mostly to individuals, AIUI.
Haven't seen them go that far, but the furniture place above does have a web site, computers, calculators, and cell phones. Interetingly, they have non-Amish do their deliveries.
The ones I knew drove to PA to get the lumber (They didn't grow much Cherry in OH ;-).
Amish furniture is big business in Eastern Ohio. Nice stuff and not a whole lot more expensive than decent store-bought stuff. The furniture we bought will be handed down to the kids and probably theirs.
Eastern Ohio isn't like that at all. They make beautiful furniture, quilts, and such. They also sell some Chinese and Indian crap in the tourist traps, but the real Amish stores have *very* nice stuff. Our quilt/bedspread was $1600, though. There was a two-year waiting list for custom made quilts.
I'm lucky my Mom was very good at quilting. I have 4 quilts that she made for me (2 queen, 2 king size), and 2 small ones for watching tv. They are of very high quality, not the finest, but very good. Sometimes I hate to use them but Mom says they are made to be used! Anyway it's nice to hear that some of the Amish still make quality things. I don't suppose they have a web site? ;-)
Oh, a few years back a friend who uses only old reclaimed wood for his "Farm Tables" and I went to see some Amish folk that took down an old factory. He bought pine boards that varied from 12" to over 24" wide. Stuff you can't buy new. Meanwhile in the Amish guys shop (the barn), he had a little assembly line making dime a dozen wooden toys, using new wood of course.
[...]
Do not -- repeat -- do NOT buy ANYTHING
"Jeff Thies" wrote
In some cases, the power is supplied by a generator, but not the grid. There are some that are talented furniture makers, but like every slice of life, some are not.
{...]
Do not -- repeat-- do NOT -- buy ANYTHING from an infomercial!
HB
The furniture place does. The place we bought the quilt is basically a consignment store in Berlin or Walnut Creek (can't remember), so I don't think they have a web site.
This is the place we bought our furniture:
There are a ton of Amish furniture stores in the Walnut Creek area of Ohio. Some, like Green Acres, have a factory behind them and others use local craftsmen for various pieces. It's pretty much all special order. They do sell stuff from out of the area, too, like rocking chairs from Vermont. That area of Ohio is really interesting if you're into this sort of thing (and have a lot of $$ to spend ;-). After I "retired" I contracted in Akron for a year, so we had plenty of time to wander around the Amish area.
While I agree that the Heat Surge is a way over priced product with dubious marketing, not all electric heaters are the same. It's true that for X kwh of electricity in, you always get Y btus out. However, where those BTUS go and how you feel the heat can be very different. For an example of that, just look at infrared heaters that are used in places like outdoor cafes or near entrances to doors in stores that stay open a lot. They keep you warm without heating all the surrounding air.
That said, I agree you can find a similar heater that will do the same job for a lot less. Their main marketing claims of drastically reducing energy bills primarily takes advantage of spot heating one area or room, while leaving the rest of the house at a much lower temp. How practical that is depends a lot on your lifestyle and living situation.
Also, IMO, nothing in that heater is any miracle of new technology.
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