efficient space heater solution?

[mizzou]

My media center is about 15 x.15, always cold. Turning up the heat doesnt seem economic to me to heat up the whole house for.one small alcove.

Anyone ever seen or use a energy efficient space heater? Most ive seen worth buying push well over 1000w, which is too much for me to justify running for a few hours a day or several hours on a weekend.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

There is no such thing as an efficient or inefficient space heater. They all have an efficiency of 1 (excluding heat pumps). It doesn't use 1000w all the time. It cycles on and off to maintain the space temperature. Your only other option is modify your existing heating system to heat the house more evenly.

 

[IronWing]

Unless they make excessive noise, portable electric heaters are 100% efficient.

Watts = heat
Less watt = less heat

 

[ebaycj]

Unless they make excessive noise, portable electric heaters are 100% efficient.

Watts = heat
Less watt = less heat

I believe you mean 99.9% efficient. Thermodynamics and all that.

 

[mizzou]

I see, was hoping that maybe some units could disperse less energy in a more efficient manner. Main problem is our basement is a " great room" style but we mainly only sit in either one or two areas, lots of wasted empty space, and a heater could keep one nook toasty warm while unused area is frigid.

250-500 sq. Ft of heating is all that is needed

 

[Vette73]

Yep a small electric heater with a thermostat works best.

We use them at night when the Thermostat turns the temp down. That way it just maintains the small room and not the whole house.

 

[lxskllr]

Use an overclocked computer for folding. You benefit, and so does everyone else.

 

[Vette73]

Use an overclocked computer for folding. You benefit, and so does everyone else.

My wife when she was at IBM site asked for a older computer to be put in her office. They did not know why till they saw she had it close to her running all the time. Old IBM systems put out a lot of heat.

 

[PottedMeat]

light yourself on fire

Give a man fire and he's warm for a day; set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life

Unless you can seal off the area there's not much you can do.

 

[lozina]

Hell my computer seems more efficient at producing heat than any space heater I had without that nasty super dry air side effect - and it's not even overclocked

 

[mizzou]

Hell my computer seems more efficient at producing heat than any space heater I had without that nasty super dry air side effect - and it's not even overclocked

My old athlon slot a pc with a 19" crt monitor had that same effect. I loooove hot dry air

 

[dank69]

You could put a 480 GTX in your HTPC, but you might not be able to hear the TV.

 

[bhanson]

I feel like my desktops increase the temperature in here by 20 degrees sometimes. I don't know if that's actually true but I do know that I can be sweating in this room and then when I walk out to the rest of the house it's actually pretty cool.

 

[invidia]

My comp is able to keep me warm in my bedroom with weather as low as 20F outside.

 

[vi edit]

The oil heaters seem to work well for us in rooms that have poor heating. Downside to them is that they take a long time to get heated up initially. But once they do, it doesn't take much to keep them heated and running.

 

[MattCo]

2000W heater, 4 hours per day, 100 days per year, $0.12 per KWh =

$96 per year

Doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

 

[ussfletcher]

The oil heaters seem to work well for us in rooms that have poor heating. Downside to them is that they take a long time to get heated up initially. But once they do, it doesn't take much to keep them heated and running.

I came to post essentially this. We have one for a small room attached to my garage, it keeps it nice and toasty with minimal power draw.

 

[BurnItDwn]

oil heater, and consider possibly adding some insulation if possible...

 

[Jeff7]

You're going to get a certain amount of BTUs per watt, no matter what you do. As was mentioned, electric heat is the most efficient heating method you can get, in terms of resources entering your home vs heat produced. (It's not cheap, nor is it efficient end-to-end - the power company needs to burn fuel, convert it into electricity, then send it to your house, then it gets converted back.)

Anyway, 1 watt turned into heat will give ~3.41 BTU/hr. It doesn't matter if those watts are coming from a computer, a lightbulb, or a spaceheater.

The way to make it better is the kind of heater - radiant or convective. Radiant will shine IR at something, and heat it that way. Convective warms the air.

 

[richardycc]

the Amish heater?

 

[joesmoke]

smartwool socks (the super thick hunting variant) paired with warm slippers. then double up on sweats. put on a hat. drink something warm (coffee), or warming (booze), or mix the two.

have your ducting checked for leaks?

close the other vents for the heater except the one in the media center.

 

[NutBucket]

I use one of these for time when I need to just heat the bedroom: (about the same size as the room you're dealing with)

It works surprisingly well.

 

[lozina]

Surprised no one mentioned the obvious cheap efficient heating solution - a diet of onions, beans and broccoli. What did you guys become all mature or something?

 

[Zenmervolt]

If you just want to heat a specific area in a larger room, consider a radiant heater. They're no good for heating a whole room, but work well for targeted heating (you only feel warm if you're standing in front of them as they transfer heat via radiation and not convection) in a small area.

The issue with the basement being a great room while you only use smaller sections of it is going to be a problem no matter what you use though. The air is going to move throughout the room and unless you partition is, any heat in the area you want warm is going to be lost to the remainder of the basement.

ZV

 

[eldorado99]