More efficient baseboard heaters?

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sfav8r

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I read periodically about "more efficient" heaters, particularly baseboard heaters. If a 30 year old heater is rated at 1,500 watts and you're replacing in with a new "efficient" 1,500 watt heater, what's the difference? Does the newer one put out more heat for the same 1,500 watts? How can I measure this?
 
Watts are watts but perhaps they have some material that retains the heat longer such as the oil filled heaters.
 
Electric heat is already 100% efficient, every watt you put into it comes out as heat. You can not make it more efficient. (It is the delivery system that has high losses)

Oil filled heaters are sometimes better at even heating but you can accomplish the same thing with better thermostats with smaller differentials.
 
iwire said:
Electric heat is already 100% efficient, every watt you put into it comes out as heat. You can not make it more efficient.
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This is true, but does not tell the complete story. If you think of "efficiency" in terms of making a room feel warmer for less input electricity, I think you can improve things by getting a heater that includes a fan. Most of my home is heated by electric baseboard or in-wall heaters. The in-wall heaters all have built-in fans. Those rooms get warm much quicker, and stay warmer, then the room with the two 4-foot baseboard heaters that don't have fans. I wish I could find replacements that do have fans.
 
At the same time that the heaters with fans heat the room quicker they also create a wind chill effect that may feel uncomfortable to some.

BTW, I have never seen a standard baseboard heater with a fan. The toe space, or kick space heaters have fans and the wall mounted ones do also.
 
It takes a given amount of power to heat a given area a given amount, or replace a given amount of heat loss. The only way to improve that is to reduce the heat loss, as through improved weathertightness and insulation.

The mechanics of the heater can not control the required heat gain. Oil-filled heaters, for example, will themselves heat and cool more slowly, but, over time, they can't heat a room "more efficiently" than standard heaters.

Added: As Bob indicated, when heat is the desired product, any loss that creates heat, such as circuit voltage drop, causes no reduction in efficiency, unless the voltage-drop-induced heat loss is outside the area to be heated.
 
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As others have mentioned, as far as resistant heating goes, the only thing that can be improved is the heat transfer of the device.

So a new baseboard heater with 'improved', and clean, fins may be more effective even though it is not more efficient.
 
Add a paddle fan and switch it to winter and put on low. It will mix the room air more effectively.
 
So are we in agreement that the fireplace heaters built by the amish and advertised on TV nothing more than a cheap $20 electric space heater in a high priced cabinet ?
 
sameguy said:
Jim they heat with wood no? What do they know about electric heating.
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Actually i think they just using the amish name to promote the heater. My question is about what they really have in them to do the heating. Am sure that by keeping it near you that you feel warm while the rest of the house is cold. True Amish would never use electric.
What i am curious about is the type of heaters from ceramic , oil,electric strip that are in the space area heaters. Do any of them actually warm up a room cheaper the others. They all seem to use 1500 to 1800 watts so bill is same but perhaps some produce more heat.
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
What i am curious about is the type of heaters from ceramic , oil,electric strip that are in the space area heaters. Do any of them actually warm up a room cheaper the others. They all seem to use 1500 to 1800 watts so bill is same but perhaps some produce more heat.
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If its electric, 1500W or 1800W is just that, 1500W or 1800W of heat. For electric resistance heating, there is no way to produce more heat than the what is on the name plate. As others have stated, the heat can be more or less effective and can feel different, but its all the same amount.

Jason
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
So are we in agreement that the fireplace heaters built by the amish and advertised on TV nothing more than a cheap $20 electric space heater in a high priced cabinet ?
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From what I read, only the wood work is done by the Amish. The functional part of the heater (the insert) is mass produced, probably in China and I doubt there are any Chinese Amish factory workers building the inserts.
 
K8MHZ said:
From what I read, only the wood work is done by the Amish. The functional part of the heater (the insert) is mass produced, probably in China and I doubt there are any Chinese Amish factory workers building the inserts.
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"Q: Are there Amish Chinese people? A:There can be, but it depends on if they belong to the orthodox Anabaptist sect. Most Amish people live in Ohio and SE Pennsylvania." http://www.chacha.com/question/are-there-amish-chinese-people
 
lakee911 said:
If its electric, 1500W or 1800W is just that, 1500W or 1800W of heat. For electric resistance heating, there is no way to produce more heat than the what is on the name plate. As others have stated, the heat can be more or less effective and can feel different, but its all the same amount.
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I'll buy "feel different" but not "more or less effective". In fact, the (minimal) current used to run the fan in the fan forced resistance heaters makes them *less* efficient. The best solution is almost always a good thermostat with a tight range of control (and not the awful built-in ones on some cheap baseboard).

You can get more efficiency in electric heating if you're willing to pay for it: a mini-split heat pump. Short of that, you cannot win, only lose, if the factory bolts a different set of widgets to the resistor you're purchasing.
 
Have seen many Amish in Upton and E town KY. They are for the most part very religious people and hard workers. Read up on them they have some very strange ways and the kids when in late teens are allowed to leave once and can go back. 90 % remain Amish. If you get a chance visit one of the farms. Not likely any chinese and actually that is part of there health problem from breeding in a closed circle.
 
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