Info about electric heaters

Ignite

Hi,

I've been looking round the net for some time now trying to find a comparison between all the different forms of electric heaters. There doesn't seem to be anything that shows how good they are at heating a room for the quantity of electricity they use. The sort of thing I'm thinking of is say for example,

You have a room of say 4m by 4m by 2.5m high. You have a 2kW free standing convector heater, an oil filled radiator, a fan heater, a 2 bar electric fire, and a panel heater. Which of these is going to keep the room at a fixed temperature for the least electricity given the same external factors (ie temperature outside the room)

Also, what are the pros and cons of each type of heater?

Please leave Storage Heaters and gas heating out for now.

Thanks

Andy

paul_h

Most wired electric heating elements are of a similar efficiency, with most of the input energy being converted to heat. An open bar heater such as an electric fire outputs a small amount of energy as light, so this would be very marginally less efficient. Also, any fan will use a small amount of energy.

If any of these were on a thermostatic control to maintain a set temperature then the cost would be very similar.

Pro's and con's? Well, any heater which improves the airflow will even the temperatures throughout the room. Ones with fully enclosed elements are obviously safer...

Smiley_Mum

Do you have just one rate for your usage of electric or two, like THTC or something like that. One rate for heating and immersion heater and the other rate for sockets and lights.

Cardew

Ignite wrote:

Hi,

I've been looking round the net for some time now trying to find a comparison between all the different forms of electric heaters. There doesn't seem to be anything that shows how good they are at heating a room for the quantity of electricity they use. The sort of thing I'm thinking of is say for example,

You have a room of say 4m by 4m by 2.5m high. You have a 2kW free standing convector heater, an oil filled radiator, a fan heater, a 2 bar electric fire, and a panel heater. Which of these is going to keep the room at a fixed temperature for the least electricity given the same external factors (ie temperature outside the room)

Also, what are the pros and cons of each type of heater?

Please leave Storage Heaters and gas heating out for now.

Thanks

Andy

Paul_H has summed it up perfectly.

All 2kW heater in the examples you give will produce the same amount of heat.

The oil filled radiator will be slower to heat the room, but will retain the heat longer.

The fan heater will 'spread' the heat around the room quickly.

The 2 bar fire will give instant warmth in the area in front of it.

Quasar

What about halogen heaters? Aren't they cheaper to run?

Cardew

Quasar wrote:

What about halogen heaters? Aren't they cheaper to run?

No!

You cannot get 'something for nothing'.

Quasar

Oh! I asked because the halogen bulbs I use only consume one fifth of electricity for the same wattage as standard bulbs. I guess heat output is a different matter, then...