# Beware False claims for electric "Miracle" heaters



## Seasoned Oak (Feb 11, 2010)

You have all heard the claims ,slash 50% off your heat bill, uses only as much electricity as a coffee maker,uses only 9 cents an hour worth of electric to make 5000 BTUs of heat. Well as of yet there is no book entitled home heat for "dummies" but there should be, 
What these $300 heaters are is a $12 electric heater in a $300 box
Save your money,If you want to spot heat with electric, buy a $12-15 electric heater and save the other $300 
First of all you need 5000 OR MORE Btus IN EVERY ROOM
Second of all ,yea it uses as much ELectric as a coffee maker 1500 watts. Have you ever seen anyone run a coffee maker in every room 24 hours a day,i didn't think so.
Uses 9 cents of electric an hour. well my electric is 15cents a KW and at 1500 watts ,your looking at 22cents and hour x 24 hours thats $5.28 a day x 30 days= $158  a month to heat JUST ONE ROOM, 
You can tel how great hese things are by the classified in your local paper ,mine is filled with these things by people trying to get some of their money back they WASTED on them


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## RIDGERUNNER30 (Feb 11, 2010)

I kind of thougth there claims were to good to be true.


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## Adkjake (Feb 11, 2010)

And don't you also love how they tout these overpriced POS as the newest in heating technology, INFRARED heat!!

Guess what, pass an electric current through a coil, get infrared heat.  You know, like an incandescent light bulb.


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## EatenByLimestone (Feb 11, 2010)

Hold up there, 

There is still a place for electric space heaters.  While I'll be the first to say I don't like them, they can still save a family money.   If all the family is in one room, say a family room, a space heater may be a cost effective alternative.  Keeping a heater on at 22 cents an hour can save a good deal of money if you are only using it while you are in that room and it allows you to turn the heat down for the rest of the house.  When you are not in the room, you can turn the heat off easy enough.  

Matt


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## Seasoned Oak (Feb 11, 2010)

Adkjake said:
			
		

> And don't you also love how they tout these overpriced POS as the newest in heating technology, INFRARED heat!!
> 
> Guess what, pass an electric current through a coil, get infrared heat.  You know, like an incandescent light bulb.



=================
Actually infrared is the better of the 2 Fan forced through an electric coil being the other. I used to use a fan forced electric heater in the bath room cuz you know  when you are all wet in the shower even 75 degrees feel cold. Now that my electric just jumped to 14cents a KW from 9 cents. I traded that 1500w fan forced for a 800W infrared and i like it better.


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## Seasoned Oak (Feb 11, 2010)

EatenByLimestone said:
			
		

> Hold up there,
> 
> There is still a place for electric space heaters.  While I'll be the first to say I don't like them, they can still save a family money.   If all the family is in one room, say a family room, a space heater may be a cost effective alternative.  Keeping a heater on at 22 cents an hour can save a good deal of money if you are only using it while you are in that room and it allows you to turn the heat down for the rest of the house.  When you are not in the room, you can turn the heat off easy enough.
> 
> Matt



I agree 100% My main reason for the post is they (edenpure and Miracle amish fireplace) are charging $300 = for a $12 electric heater in a $300 Box .My point is you do not need the $300 Box. Also its hard to take that into the Batrhroom with you. I use an electric infrared(About $25) in my bathroom. THe claims are very misleading.


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## BrotherBart (Feb 11, 2010)

EatenByLimestone said:
			
		

> Hold up there,
> 
> There is still a place for electric space heaters.  While I'll be the first to say I don't like them, they can still save a family money.   If all the family is in one room, say a family room, a space heater may be a cost effective alternative.  Keeping a heater on at 22 cents an hour can save a good deal of money if you are only using it while you are in that room and it allows you to turn the heat down for the rest of the house.  When you are not in the room, you can turn the heat off easy enough.
> 
> Matt



The problem is that a fifty dollar oil filled heater will heat it just fine without one of the four hundred dollar Edenpure heaters the OP is talking about.


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## Adkjake (Feb 11, 2010)

Yup, should have added to my post, they have their uses. But no need to spend $300 on one.  God Bless
the Amish, but they shun electricity and modern technology, so why are people falling for the hype that they
have come up with a marvel of electric heat.

Agree with previous poster on the oil filled radiator type.  use one in the cottage, provides nice heat at 
a low cost.


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## EatenByLimestone (Feb 11, 2010)

I laugh every time I see the Amish commercial.  I love the hand made pocket screw technology.   :lol:


Matt


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## Adios Pantalones (Feb 11, 2010)

There's some simple damn physics involved here.  If you want a certain amount of energy dumped into a room- it has to come in through the wires.  If the heater is 100% efficient at converting tricity to heat- there's still an amount of electricity required that cannot be reduced.

unless they be usin "Amish magic" that I don't know about.


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## Corey (Feb 11, 2010)

All true, there is no cheating the laws of physics.  Though I would argue it's not a $12 heater in a $300 box.  It's more like a $12 heater in a $15 box, sold for $300.


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## Later (Feb 11, 2010)

Some of the ceramic heaters, Polonis for example, actually vary the heat produced and the electricity consumed by controlling the fan speed of the unit. No more efficient than any other heater but there seems to be none of the on-off cycling that you see with other electric space heaters.


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## Highbeam (Feb 11, 2010)

I use electric space heaters, the built in permanent wall heaters, for my "central" or official heat source with of course wood heat being the actual heat source. They certainly are fantastic as everyone in this thread will agree at converting 100% of the electrical input into room heat. 

This thread is about the misleading marketing used to sell a spaceheater by claiming a special efficiency or by calling their heaters superior at making heat. 

All electric resistance heaters are 100% efficient. Energy in = energy out. If you want more heat for your electric dollar then look at heat pumps that steal energy from outdoors and can be 300%+ efficient when not considering the outdoor energy theft.


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## Adkjake (Feb 11, 2010)

Agreed, and I think that's the consensus of this thread.  The $300+ Edinpures and Amish ones are no more efficient or cheaper to operate than the $50 ones you can buy at Lowes or Ace Hardware. 

I'm trying out a $50 Sunbeam electric I bought at Lowes. My house has a 3/4 finished walkout basement, the other 1/4 is the utility/laudary room.  Woodstove is located on the main floor and it keeps that and the upper floor bedrooms toasty.  The oil fired baseboard hot water furnace has zone heating for each of the 3 floors. When using the woodstove, even with the basement thermostat set at 62* the furnace kicks on everyonce in a while for that zone.  So I set the little electric heater up near the thermostat, and will try to measure which costs less by looking at the change in the electric bill from previous month vs running the furnance at .60 gals per hour x cost of oil.

I've also tried leaving the basement door ajar, setting up a fan at the bottom of stairs to the basement blowing up, and one at the top landing blowing down.  That seems to work pretty well.

Would love to hear anyone else's experiences with similar.


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## Jack Straw (Feb 11, 2010)

I love the hypocrisy of the media, 60 Minutes will expose something wrong in our country and then all night the same channel will have info-mercials selling all sorts of crap that 60 minutes should be investigating.


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