I just bought this stupid space heater, and will be taking it right back.
As you can see from a scan of the box, it touts "Energy efficiency - save 35% over regular room heaters) http://i4.tinypic.com/6tkyk2v.jpg
They make it sound like new technology.
But here’s what really happens. They give you 35% less heat.
That’s the comparison. A normal space heater takes 1500 watts. But theirs averages 975 watts. For 35% less energy, but also 35% less heat.
Gee, who’d have thought of that?
And they have more major usage flaws. There is no thermostat.
They give you one minute at 1200 watts alternating with one minute at 750 watts.
And if that makes the room too hot, you can turn it on and off yourself every couple of minutes. If not hot enough, then you can set it for 1200 watts all the time, for correspondingly more energy use.
And, just for silliness’ sake, their first instruction is to “Be sure the unit is turned off before you plug it in.” Two problems with that: 1) You can’t tell if it’s off because it runs on push buttons that pop back into position. And 2) When it’s unplugged it automatically turns off, requiring you to push the On button again, so it’s impossible to plug it in when it’s turned on.
Well, the last time I checked, you couldn’t get an electric heater any more or less efficient than 100%, so the only way Bea Spoke was compromising was by purchasing from lying swine. Companies that pull that nonsense should be ashamed, and they help make many people mistrust each other undeservedly too.
Thanks Napier. They did manage to catch Spit off his/her guard, as they did me.
With so much real green technology in the news you just expect green claims to be true.
Yeah, but this seems worse. A hybrid, fuel-efficient car might not win races, but it’ll get you to work or to the store about as well as a sports car. For a typical usage, it gives you nearly as much utility as the alternative for considerably less energy.
That’s the sort of compromise I’m willing to make. Not ‘less utility and far less control for less energy.’
One could say that thermostats on space heaters are like … well, I don’t know what they’re like, but they’re mostly useless. There’s a sound reason why the thermostats that control central heating systems are not located directly above the vent closest to the furnace: they’re supposed to measure the room’s temperature, not the furnace’s temperature.
My personal experience with space heaters has taught me that there is only one efficient setting for their “thermostats”: the maximum setting. Granted, in that position the heater turns on, and stays on until you shut it off. But any setting of less than maximum means that it turns on and continues to run for exactly as long as it takes the thermostat — which is located mere inches from the heating elements — to register the presence of heat. Which means, at least in the case of the heater I’m using now, that it will turn on, run for perhaps 30 seconds, and then shut down for a number of minutes (depending on where the dial is set). The result is that the room never actually gets warm because the thermostat is only measuring the heat in the immediate vicinity of the heater itself, which is obviously the warmest part of the room.
Add to this the fact that my heater, when it shuts off, produces an unholy shrieking akin to the screams of a thousand tortured souls as the heating elements cool and contract. This din will repeatedly awaken me when I’m sleeping, so I’m forced to turn the damn thing off completely when I go to bed (I’m not going to leave it running full-blast while I sleep).
