halogen heater query
Options
Comments
-
Hello,
New to the forum and have read the discussions on heaters with interest. I do have to say at the outset that I do agree with Robbie's statement that because a heater ( or any other electrical appliance) is labelled, say, 1 KW it does mean that it consumes 1KW of electricity but does NOT mean that it uses all of this energy to, in the case of a heater, produce heat or in the case of a light bulb to produce light. Ever tried to change a light bulb ( tungsten element type ) before it has cooled down!
Ergo different types of heater will use the energy in different ways and will not convert all of the energy into heat, some will do it better than others but none will be 100% efficient.
One only has to take the example of LED lamps where a 4 watt LED lamp will produce as much light as a 50watt tungsten lamp and produce very little heat i.e. most of the energy is converted into light. whereas in a tungsten lamp an awful lot is wasted in heat.
Thus a halogen heater, conversely, must waste some of the energy as light. and a fan heater will use some to drive the fan motor.
So if you want maximum heat a black radiant element is more efficient in producing heat than one that lights the room up, and if light is required then a cool LED lamp will be far more efficient than a tungsten or halogen lamp which both get very hot.
Hope that helps?
jonsox
Welcome to the forum.
Of course different types of electrical equipment are used for different purposes - who said differently?
What we(or rather Albert Einstein) have stated is you cannot destroy energy. If you use, say 1kWh, you will (eventually) produce the same amount of heat.
So you have concluded that a 4 watt LED light produces less heat that a 50 watt tungsten lamp! With respect, that is hardly earth-shattering.
We can deduce from that conclusion that LED lamps are more efficient at producing light - which is the reason why we use them.
However put 250 x 4 watt LED, or 20 x 50 watt tungsten lamps, or a single 1kW electrical heater in a room and they all will draw 1kW and produce EXACTLY the same amount of heat.
I am afraid you are confusing effectiveness with efficiency!
It would appear your contention is that if we take a 1kW fan heater, where the fan motor draws, say, 30 watts it is only 97% efficient and will only produce 97% of the heat of a heater without a fan? If it had a huge 100 watt fan it would only be 90% efficient etc etc. Is that really what you are saying?
If we take a 1kW searchlight(which were used in the war) put it in a room and switch it on, as it emits only light then how efficient as a heater would you say that would be?
Bear in mind you have already told us that a 50 watt tungsten lamp produces a lot of heat(and light) so using your principle stated above(i.e. 'thus a halogen heater, conversely, must waste some of the energy as light') how efficient is that at heating the room?0 -
I just purchased a 7 watt LED lamp and I was trying it out in various rooms.4 watt LED lamp will produce as much light as a 50watt tungsten lamp and produce very little heat
It gets hot. So hot I almost dropped it when I took it out of the ceiling light fitting.
That is why they have a large finned heat sink on them.0 -
I replaced a 100 watt halogen lamp with a LED lamp and have had to put a small heater in my room to replace the lost heat from the halogen lamp.0
-
I did the bathroom out with a 1250 watt halogen, expensive some may say
but it's on well under an hour a day - it heads locally and the other option is heat the rest of my very large house just so I can face going into the shower
I reckon its horses for courses really - you gotta tailor your solutions to what helps you spend net the least money - and for me that's a water stopping membrane then a stack of fibre glass in the loft above the bathroom, a halogen for showers, and localised heating via radiators for rest of living area.
everyone on here who has said leccy heaters cost a lot are correct, but the good news is the standard is universal - it's the wattage, that's all that counts. If for example you got a 400w convection heater or a 1200w convection heater and a timeswitch that stuck on the 1200 w for 20 mins every hour you'd be the same.
my advice, insulate. Don't type on here with frozen fingers.0 -
arghh!!! these pub physicists are doing my head in. Yes Einstien showed energy cannot be lost but their is more than heat energy to take into an account. Take into account also light, chemical, and sound ( just because you cant hear it doesnt mean it doesnt exist ) so the origanal question was is the hallogen heater more effiecient then an old bar electric. old bar electric uses up chemical ( the smell you get off them is ozone ) heat ,light and sound the same for hallogen but it is more effiecient at producing heat for the amount of electrical energy used. it has been said before only usefull for small direct heat and not for heating rooms. Bottom line wear more jumpers ( only joking )0
-
woollymoore wrote: »arghh!!! these pub physicists are doing my head in. Yes Einstien showed energy cannot be lost but their is more than heat energy to take into an account. Take into account also light, chemical, and sound ( just because you cant hear it doesnt mean it doesnt exist ) so the origanal question was is the hallogen heater more effiecient then an old bar electric. old bar electric uses up chemical ( the smell you get off them is ozone ) heat ,light and sound the same for hallogen but it is more effiecient at producing heat for the amount of electrical energy used. it has been said before only usefull for small direct heat and not for heating rooms. Bottom line wear more jumpers ( only joking )
So presumably you are better qualified than a pub physicist?
If so explain what happens to efficiency when a heater produces light(as long as that light doesn't escape the room)
A question for you. Put an old anti-aircraft searchlight into a room without windows. If it uses, say, 1kWh, what is its efficiency in producing heat compared to a purpose made electrical heater?0 -
Has anyone else noticed that there are so many first time posters who join MSE simply to defend a certain type of electrical heater - halogen in this case.0
-
It makes a change from the shilling of ludicrously expensive German radiant heater panels!Has anyone else noticed that there are so many first time posters who join MSE simply to defend a certain type of electrical heater - halogen in this case.
Halogen heaters do have some virtues for personal heating, so it could be worse!0 -
I did start reading this post with great interest, by the time I got to the end I could not care less, some of you want to get out more........0
-
If you are happy to sit in a cold room but with a radiant- heated zone then halogen's fine but why not go whole- hog and pile on lots of clothes and have no heating at all? There's a whole spectrum of options ranging from whole- house central heating and light clothing to the above scenario - you pays yer money .... .0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards