Electric heater efficiency - Before anyone asks ;)

lstar337

amtrakuk wrote: »

As far as I'm aware the bigger commercial types generally combine an auxiliary heat source (gas or electric) once the temp drops to keep the circuit from freezing up

I work for a very small electronic manufacturing company (only 7 of us) so I know all the details of the heating system. There is no auxiliary heat source in ours, it is a pure heat pump system.

If gas were an option, we would have a combi boiler in a heart bet.

On a very cold day the older units (8 Mitsubishi City Multi's connected to a single outdoor unit about the size of a smart car) do take a few minutes before they start to operate correctly, but the newer units which each have there own (Daikin or Mitsubishi) outdoor units will operate immediately. I assume this is down to improvements in technology. There is about a 15 year age gap between the systems.

Cardew

The purpose of threads like this is to explain to any non-technical readers the basics of electrical heating, to protect them from the advertisements and salesmen who try to convince them that their ‘special’ radiator filled with a magic ingredient and coated with a special substance, and costing many £hundreds, will reduce their electricity heating bills by a huge margin.

The message they should glean from these threads is quite simple, that a £10 electrical heater or a £1,500 electrical heater will produce EXACTLY the same amount of HEAT for the same running cost. It hopefully will prevent some people being ripped off by unscrupulous companies/salesmen.

Yet every time this subject comes up the discussion diverts(you might say degenerates;)) away from that message and after reading the thread, the target audience could be forgiven for being totally confused by people scoring points.

Smiley_Dan

We all understand the GCSE physics though. That isn't the pertinent question.

Cardew

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

We all understand the GCSE physics though. That isn't the pertinent question.

Who are 'We'?


The people - often pensioners - being ripped off for £thousands by unscrupulous salesmen do not appear to have a good grasp of physics.

polymaff

Cardew wrote: »

(snip)

As the title of this thread is "Electric heater efficiency"


you appear to be hoist on your own petard.

Smiley_Dan

Cardew wrote: »

The people - often pensioners - being ripped off for £thousands by unscrupulous salesmen do not appear to have a good grasp of physics.

If that's the purpose, and this thread is intended to be found by people looking for said information, then you'd be better off naming the companies and products.

If the intended readers are really incapable of remembering something they were taught when they were 15 (and I agree there does appear to be plenty of such people on the forum) how are they going to know how to generalise the product they are being sold to "convected electrical heating"?

So you're best of naming the products so the search engine picks them up. Or setting up separate domains so Google picks them up.

lstar337

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

If that's the purpose, and this thread is intended to be found by people looking for said information, then you'd be better off naming the companies and products.

But the companies of said products like to get MSE to delete posts naming and shaming. This has happened before with a brand of so-called storage heaters that will do nothing but increase a victims bill by 300%.

I don't know why MSE would listen to such swindlers, but that's another matter.

lstar337

Cardew wrote: »

The purpose of threads like this is to explain to any non-technical readers the basics of electrical heating, to protect them from the advertisements and salesmen who try to convince them that their ‘special’ radiator filled with a magic ingredient and coated with a special substance, and costing many £hundreds, will reduce their electricity heating bills by a huge margin.

I agree.

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

We all understand the GCSE physics though. That isn't the pertinent question.

Forum regulars probably do (I say probably as some seem to have a poor grasp. There are some who believe that leaving heating on is cheaper than timed periods), but it's the rest of the people who come here for advice who may need reminding.

Lets not forget, the people selling these wonder heaters will be using fancy speak, glossy magazines, and statistics from all kinds of make believe organisations. They're pro's at what they do!

polymaff

lstar337 wrote: »

But the companies of said products like to get MSE to delete posts naming and shaming..

Gosh! That would virtually shut down the Bank Accounts and Energy sections of MSE. Are you sure about that? :)

Smiley_Dan

I suppose, on the other side, the more articles the better. Grab the "long tail" and all that.