was a sucker on this, didn't realize were the mini versions, apart from a line in the specs it wasn't noted and the picture was misleading. pretty disappointed on that end.

Otherwise the big overlooked aspect of these heaters is the gauge of the cord. Most space heaters have a cord about the gauge of a lamp, feel it after running just a few hours, they can get pretty warm.

I've been running an eden unit 24/7 in the winter in a central room with clockwise moving ceiling fan for several years. Coupled with reasonable electric and expensive heating oil it has more than paid for itself. Especially when the heat rises up through the house reducing the calls from a second zone.

Not everyone has the option of natural gas heat. Were it an option would jump ship from oil in a second.

Would a cheap heater do roughly the same as the eden in terms of efficiency when additional circulation is applied, absolutely. I've tested it (swapping heaters around on cold nights, temperature taken from various walls via infrared thermometer, variance 1-2 f) But theres no way i'd run a unit with a thin cord 24/7.


Situational electric heater justification math:

(my) Elec rate 14 cents per kw
Oil $3.50 or higher per gallon currently.

1 gal Oil = 140,000 btu
1kw = 3,400 btu

Oil furnace efficiency 70-80% in most situations ( am a licensed oil monkey, and gas monkey cert.) Good luck actually averaging the 85%+ claimed by modern units. Will use 75% for an easy realistic number accounting for older units.

Space heaters are near 100% efficient.

140,000 x .75 (est. furnace efficiency)
= 105,000

105,000 / 3,400 = 30.88 (round up)

31 kilowatts of electric heat to roughly equal the btu produced by one gallon of #2 heating oil.

In my case its 14 cents a killowat.

31 x $.14 = $4.34 for 105,000 btus

So on a direct btu comparison at .14/kw electric costs about 25% more than $3.50/gal oil.

However the electricity consumed by the furnace running as well as the efficiency of zone heating has not yet been factored, add in those and electric for a given situation can pull ahead.

rgfitz wrote:I have a small Holmes electric heater in a plastic enclosure with a fan that cost $7.95 at Lowes, if I remember right, about ten years ago. I just plugged it into a KILL A WATT Model P4400 Volt/Amp/Watt/Hz/KWH meter. My voltage is 115v. On the low setting it indicates 927W and 1152W on high.

I really don't think anyone needs to pay much for an electric heater unless it makes them feel better to have an expensive one.

I forgot to point out another advantage of a small, cheap heater. You can drag it into the crawl space of your house to blow hot air on frozen pipes...and loan it to neighbors to do the same thing.