# electric heater ???



## sleepie (Feb 1, 2008)

i need to get an energy efficient electric heater to put in a cold bathroom---preferably with a thermostat and timer if such an animal is made --does anyone know of one????----wife's cheeks are cold---pat


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## pdboilermaker (Feb 1, 2008)

As I understand, all electric heaters are very effecient (does not equate into cheaper to run however).  Unless you go with a hardwired electric system, all of the plug in types are 1500 watts no matter what the type e.g. baseboard, oil filled, ceramic, coil, etc.

Ones with a small fan do heat quicker, wait a month and you can buy them for 1/2 price at Walmart.  Put a $5.00 timer into the outlet.


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## mayhem (Feb 1, 2008)

Most, if not all electric heaters have 3 settings though, 1500w is the max, there are usually two lower settings somewhere in the range of 500 and 1000w.

IIRC thre was a thread about a month ago that talked about some of those "energy saving" electric heaters that you see the ads for in teh back of Popular Mechanics and they run more like 400w and supposedly do a pretty decent job of heating a space.


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## ericjeeper (Feb 1, 2008)

when I built my home back in 04 I installed fart fan/light/heater. Took two separate power feeds to each though. But it is nice not to have a heater sitting around on the floor.
 Bad thing is when someone visiting turns on the wrong switch in the summer, thinking they are exhausting the room. But instead they walked out and left the odor to cook.LOL


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## pcampbell (Feb 1, 2008)

I agree with you my wife complains about the bathroom. Is there no heat at all?   A small baseboard might work.  I hate to use electricity for heat....


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## granpajohn (Feb 1, 2008)

I went through this a few years ago. Desired a radiant (quartz) type electric unit to heat the body for 5 minutes, not the room for an hour. You will find that most of these things warn against use in moist (ie: bathroom) environment. The one we ended up with is not much different from any other, but they put a GFI at the end of the power cord and claim it is safe for wet environments. Got it at Lowes I think. Maybe $45. There are more convenient methods using permanent installations, but for our tiny room, this was easy and we store it away in the summer. Our room temp can fall into the 50s and it does work to make you comfortable.

Important bottom line: Wife really likes it.


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## mikedengineer (Feb 1, 2008)

I also use a quartz heater.  It has temperature settings.  Both my wife and I like it and use it when desired.  

-Mike


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## Highbeam (Feb 1, 2008)

I turn on a small ceramic heater when I get into the bathroom in the morning. 58-62 degrees at first. I shave and brush, then shower leaving it on low the whole time which is 750 watts. The fan is critical since this application requires instant heat on the body. At the end of my shower the room is 70-73 and the mirror is not fogged up. If I needed a warm room first thing then a cheezy plug in timer could be set up to preheat the room. The socket is a GFCI so I feel fine about setting a heater on the floor. Most of these including mine have a thermostat. I unplug and replug each day.


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## reaperman (Feb 2, 2008)

Most small ceramic heaters with fans on them are not big energy consumers.  I recently bought one for the wife in the bathroom also.  Checked out the rated watts on the back, 750 on low 1500 on high.  On the 750 watt setting, which is plenty for a bathroom.  Translates to .75% of a kilo-watt hour (KWH).  The price per kwh for my home is just under 10 cents.  So take 10 cents x .75 and you run your little heater for 7 1/2 cents per hour.   The  1500 watt setting would be 15 cents/hour.  Money well spent considering the flip-side of having to listen to the "war department" telling you she is cold.


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## sleepie (Feb 2, 2008)

thanks for all your help---this should get her to stop----i don't want to go back to natural gas..


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## jebatty (Feb 2, 2008)

We used electric space heaters (1300-1500 watts) for years. Then Jan 2007 I started bathroom remodel project in the "plan" stage for 15 years. After some research and talking to electrician friend, I installed a toe space electric heater, wired into a timer switch. Two bathrooms, two heaters -- one is 120V at 750w for the small br and the other is 240V at 1500w for the larger br. Fabulous outcome, and the timer switch is great. Impossible to leave the heater on accidentally; can't knock the heater over; no electrocution issue; no danger to kids.


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## sleepie (Feb 4, 2008)

please explain a toe space heater and where would i get info---thanks


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## sleepie (Feb 4, 2008)

i found a bron fan forced wall heater---mounts in the wall--750--or--1500 watts,, i will try 750 first--i'm going to put it on a honeywell programmable line thermostat---that should get her warm---and it will shut off when were not there----thanks for all your help----pat


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## jebatty (Feb 5, 2008)

sleepie said:
			
		

> please explain a toe space heater and where would i get info---thanks



A toe space heater fits in the space under a cabinet behind the kick board and between the floor and the bottom of the cabinet. Models are made of various wattages and 120 or 240 volt operation or both. Google "toe space heater" to see examples by various manufacturers. They are usually if not always equipped with their own thermostat on the unit itself. Some people might wire in a wall thermostat. Some add a wall timer switch to turn the heater off after a set number of minutes. This way you get heat when you want it and don't need to think about turning it off when heat is not needed.


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## woodzilla (Feb 5, 2008)

Just picked up an oil filled unit with low med or high setting, thermostat control and it was 12 bucks at home depot.  They are having a clearance on all their heaters right now.
go go go


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