new electric heater,,,,,,,?

NO !!!!!

Buy the cheapest or whatever fits the  space.

A 1500 watt heater is a 1500 watt heater,it don't matter what 'they' say..

Jay

Hay , I got a REAL 'milkhouse heater ' here ! 2 prong bakelite plug, twisted cotton covered cord,no fan, no stat,no fallover safety...heats up and stinks AND it was Made in Canada, a coon's age ago.

Waay too neat to toss, too dangerous to use......

Jay

Electric heaters take electricity, and convert it into heat... 1kw in yields 3412 BTU.

You can pay extra for 'radiant', or "Oil Filled" or 'infrared, or 'ceramic' or 'digital' or "Quartz"...

The circumstance is still the same- a power plant somewhere pushes power through wiring into your house, where it goes through a plug and wires into a resistor which gets hot.

Mathematically, it is ALMOST 100% efficient... well... mebbie 90% efficient...

Because a resistive load like this is typically one of the highest loads in terms of current flow and duty cycle, that the wiring leading UP TO the heater is usually well-loaded, and generates heat along the way.  Some of that load occurs OUTSIDE your house, which means it's still generating heat... but it's not doing you any good out there...

But if you're trying to keep your lathe warm, it's better than nothing...

But the end result is, all those other types are doing the same thing, but at higher prices on account of bein' 'new and improved'.  So, the MOST EXPENSIVE is actually the 'most efficient'... at generating income for the retail path.  Providing heat?  no different.

Hey... why don't cha do this: 

Plug that heater into a different outlet somewhere else, and try it.  if it works, replace the receptacle in the shop, and plug your heater back in.

Also- feel the cord- is it warm?  how 'bout the plug?  If the plug is warm, cut it off, put on a new plug.

There isn't much to go wrong in a resistive heater, aside from the resistive element corroding away...  it's usually nichrome wire wrapped around a ceramic form...

By the way- an expert in his own mind told me once that all electricity is red, and it flows better through red wires... and he proved it by turning on a heater and pointing out that as soon as electricity started flowing, you could see it through the wires...

 AW, Dave,,,I was just joshing you as I had never heard about them kind of heaters,,,

 Actually I ordered the one this morning  that Steve had sent me a link to,,, just 24 bucks and free shipping,,,,

 Thanks for the offer, Dave,,,,,

I installed a 3ph 15JC Onan air cooled generator onto my son in laws garage/shop and the cooling air can be, and is ducted into the shop to supplement the warming during the colder months. I have a Honeywell "Modutrol" motor and a set of operating shutters to incorporate during the summer months next year to eliminate the mechanical levers now pulled to operate "flaps" allowing the air to flow as desired. It works well but the little generator is mounted outside of the shop in an enclosure so the bulk of the operating noise is muffled substantially. Slight positive pressure in the workspace is also a byproduct as there is no sidewall venting. During the summer when heating is not needed, the flaps are position changed to not allow discharged cooling air into the shop but rather out the back wall of the enclosure. Inlet air comes through a vented door of this enclosure at all times.

And yes, there is a CO monitor installed in the shop as a "just in case" but it's never went off from exhaust leakage. This was tested during conception of the idea.

I KNOW the thermostat in the garage will keep the damn county HOT  if I leave the door open ! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Even when set to OFF grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

OK, I finally read the microfont instructions and back on page 22 it says there's a 'safety feature' that will turn the furnace on in case the house gets too cold,or you turned the stat off.

So to outsmart the smart thermostat I had to wire a door switch to KILL power to the furnace.

Tbone95 wrote: Geez weren’t you paying attention? The ceramic one is cheaper

Where did you get that?  meaning... in comparison to what?  An oil-filled, or oscillating quartz radiant?  Of course...   a simple nichrome resistive - certainly not.

A semi-resistive ceramic element has an interesting and useful characteristic that as it warms, it's resistance curve rises up considerably, causing it's current flow to 'fold back' at some particular point.  A nichrome wire does A LITTLE, but not to a significant amount...

But the cheapest by far is a nichrome wire element.  They're all just resistors, the rest is just glitz and garbage.

gee Dave , dumb idea as I sit here waiting for silly kitty to come back in....

Could you put a 'turbo unit' into the exhaust piping to spin a small generator ? I know not a lot of pressure and kinda hot, BUT that 'force of energy'( wind ) is there !

Now when you've worked out the kinks, patented it, made your zillions, please remember me !

sniff,sniff... well there goes another 'million buck' idea......waaaa

hmm, maybe I should ask the guv for a HUGE 'grant' for a 'fesabilty study' !!!

oh well, at least  kitty's in the house  !

dang, now I'm thinking about magnets and wondering WHY they don't lose their energy when stuck to the fridge ?

only 60 days until Spring !!

The 'Kissair'??

I don't consider it's price of 63 cents less to be 'several dollars cheaper'...

nor is it a fiscal magnitude worthy of concern.  A significant margin of difference would be a predictable regularity of at least 15%.  A nichrome element is historically much cheaper to make... my bet is that the makers of the nichrome heater based their price on what the ceramic-element units were price-pointing, rather than some number commensurate to the true COST of manufacture... so buy whatever.

"NORMALLY" a resistance "MILK HOUSE HEATER" will be the cheapest heater you can buy, and they are Simple, Well Built, Cheap, and Easy to fix if something happens.  That is what i would recommend in a SHOP or out in the Pump house.