Comments on: Burn, baby, burn…

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:46:17 +0000

I’d be wondering how efficiently an electric heater would run… space heaters are pretty expensive, I’ve heard.

I LOVE my slippers and bathrobe!

By: cottagerswife

cottagerswife — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:53:14 +0000

Our place can be chilly in the cool weather. We rely on our airtight fireplace, sweaters and thick slippers during the day so as to use the electric baseboard heaters as little as possible. We also have heated mattress pads on our beds. These are fitted mattress covers with wires sewn in. If you press your hand against it, you can feel the wires easily, but when you distribute your weight by laying down, you don’t feel them. You put your bottom (fitted) sheet over top. It has dual controls in queen and king size. Before bed, you dial it up for a half hour or so. When you climb in, it feels like someone else has just climbed out. A good duvet and our own body heat takes over from there, so we never sleep with it on. I think this saves us quite a bit as we keep the house quite cool at night. Don’t know if this helps. Cheers!

By: j

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:50:46 +0000

I think it looks nice. I’d like it in my house.

By: d

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:12:10 +0000

I think that this unit is more about looks than performance.
It appears to be a forced air electric heater. Note that the specs tell you that it’s a 1400 watt heater. Check your hair dryer, I bet it’s 1500watts. So this would be a bigger, much more expensive hair dryer. It will give you hear, but it draws a lot of electricity because the heating coils and the blower work full time.

There are two options. The best one is the oil-filled heater that looks like a little roll around radiator. It only draws power to heat the oil. There is a simple thermostat on the end that you turn up or down. The heater only draws power to get the oil up to temperature and then shuts off. No blower, no hot coils.
It’s much more cost effective, and MUCH safer since there is no hot coils to ignite drapes, couches or sleeping dogs. It does take a little longer to heat up and heat the room, but the heat is constant and the electrical draw is very low. This is what we put in the baby’s room with you kids. Spot heat for a room, very safe, very efficient, very portable.

The other option that we used was a Quartz heater. This is infrared, it draws power at a lower rate that the hot air types but only heats objects, not the air.
They work very well and are hot right away, but you MUST keep an eye on them because they heat continously and can light things on fire.
You may have seen these in Europe outside restaurants. The Europeans mount big ones overhead in the outside eating areas to keep the people sitting outside warm.

We used this kind but eventually went with the oil filled because it was cheaper and much safer.

Hope this helps.