Electric gas heat

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ronaldrc

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Location
Tennessee
Electric heat

Is it me or am I not following the electric heating industry close enough?


Since the resistive nickel chromium wire heater and the heat pump it seems like new heat
sources and research in this area has stopped other than solar.


You know Edison experimented with thousands of different chemicals and alloys before
he found the one that would work in the incandescent bulb. I wonder how many where
experimented with when they came up with the nickel chrome heater wire?

I would bet my house if enough different chemicals and conductors where researched for
resistive heaters we could find a bunch that would yield a higher BTU per watt than the
conventional nickel chome we use now.

The only advance I have seen in this area is the electric hydro heater which is just an
electric heater with a water tank to hold the heat this is not more efficient just good for
reserve heat.

They have made a little progress in the thermal electric using semiconductors but these
are so power hungry they are not practical.


They have made tremendous progress in the lighting industry. Why couldn?t they try and
make a heating system on the same basic principles they are producing all this bright
white light with? By using high pressure or low pressure gases and pushing a high voltage
through it to produce heat instead of light, and trying to get the largest Calorie or BTU out
of it they can and encasing them in metal tubes.

Be a very good thing for the transformer or ballast industry and for us electricians to work
on.

This could be Gas electric heat.
 
Re: Electric gas heat

Ronald, I believe that 3413 BTU is equivalent to 1 KWH and that cannot be changed by changing the heater alloy.
 
Re: Electric gas heat

I disagree I think that different mixtures of alloys will have a direct effect on the BTU output per watt.

Or maybe I should be saying more heat per volt/amp.

[ January 21, 2005, 10:47 PM: Message edited by: ronaldrc ]
 
Re: Electric gas heat

Ronald, the basic error in your thinking is leading to an attempt to violate the laws of physics. The reason light sources are getting better is the fact that more energy is being used to produce just light and not heat. The same can not be done for resistance heat since you are not attempting to produce light but you are only producing heat.

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter what is producing the heat, the same amount of energy will be used for the same amount of heat. The reality of that statement sort of changes with the introduction of heat pumps. The thing about heat pumps though is that they do not produce heat, they just pick up heat from one place and move it to another location. :D
 
Re: Electric gas heat

Charlie

I am talking about producing heat instead of light using that same principle.

I shouldn't have used BTU in my statement.

I think you know I am talking about.If all elements chemicals Etc. produce the same amount of heat with the same amount of electrical power running through them then I agree with your statement but I don't know that is the case do you?

Light and heat are both energy if your statement is true they couldn't manufacture a more efficient light bulb todays bulb would be no brighter than Edisons first bulb. :)
 
Re: Electric gas heat

Ronald, the fact remains that:

P = EI in a heater or light bulb.

Edison's lamp operated at a lower temperature and as a light source it was less efficient than modern lamps.

Resistive heaters, whatever the material, is considered to be 100% efficient because they produce little or no visible light. You can do no more. For every KWH in you get 3413 BTU.

The heat pump is another matter. It is just an air conditioner with the condenser inside and the evaporator outside. These units can pump perhaps 15,000 BTU for every KWH consumed. This is not efficiency, it is efficacy which can be greater than 100%.
 
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