Silent space heaters?

[TridenT]

Dyson AM09, incredibly expensive.
http://www.dyson.com/air-treatment/heaters/am09/am09-fan-heater-white-silver.aspx

Saw that one. If it doesn't make a clicking sound maybe I'll get it.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Why is the click such a big deal, im curious?

 

[SithSolo1]

I too have an oil filled heater. It does click but not once has it ever woken me up. Get one from your local HD/Lowes and if it is too loud return it. Mine is a Delonghi brand unit.

I will say when you first get the unit it may have a oil smell to it. You can either run it outside on high on the patio for an hour or so or do what I did: Leave it in the bathroom on high with the door cracked and the vent fan going for an hour or two and check on it every 10-15mins to make sure your house isn't on fire.

 

[dullard]

I run a fan at night for noise. So, I'm not worried about air flow. It'll circulate air fast.

The problem is that I have a space heater now and it wakes me up sometimes with its clicking on and off.

I've never tried one, so they may click, but there are heated ceiling fans that will do all of your tasks in one.

https://www.menards.com/main/lighti...bronze-heater-ceiling-fan/p-1444433639050.htm

 

[T66756e6b]

Saw that one. If it doesn't make a clicking sound maybe I'll get it.

The Dyson is actually among the loudest space heaters. It's supposedly better because it has more pleasant air delivery. To achieve this "superior" air flow, it uses an impeller rather than a fan, and guides the air through a manifold.

I'm very impressed that the click of an oil radiator space heater wakes you up at night. I'm not sure that is your true motivation in seeking a completely silent space heater.

 

[Rubycon]

Sound does not travel in space so therefore the audio characteristics of said heaters are irrelevant.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah can't imagine something as simple as a click waking me up. Then again I'm a pretty hard sleeper once I finally manage to actually fall asleep. I can even sleep through construction happening in my house. My A/C install was booked on a day I worked nights so slept while they installed it. The initial hole drilling kept me up since I was not sleeping yet, but once I feel asleep I woke up and they were gone for their lunch break and most of it was installed.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Sound does not travel in space so therefore the audio characteristics of said heaters are irrelevant.

Good point, can you hear the heaters on the ISS? Me neither. Actually I wonder if they even need heaters up there, they probably need cooling more than anything. The big white accordion panels are basically heat sinks. Residual heat from sun is probably more than enough to make it through their ~45 minutes of night.

 

[brianmanahan]

I'm very impressed that the click of an oil radiator space heater wakes you up at night. I'm not sure that is your true motivation in seeking a completely silent space heater.

what motivation could it possibly be?

 

[T66756e6b]

what motivation could it possibly be?

What's your best guess?

 

[dullard]

what motivation could it possibly be?

Hmm, maybe like many of us he has space heaters banned at work and an office at a cozy 66°F.

 

[brianmanahan]

Hmm, maybe like many of us he has space heaters banned at work and an office at a cozy 66°F.

oh riiiight

my old employer did that. each VP got to set the thermostat temperature in their part of the building. my department was fine at 72F. but one VP set his to 62F and basically told all his workers to stuff it.

everyone hated that guy.

if i could set an office temperature, it would be 74F.

 

[kage69]

I don't use the typical electric space heaters as they are power hungry and don't last very long. They're better at helping you discover wiring issues in your house I think.

I've seen the infrared ones that use a squirrel cage fan, they seem to work ok and are quiet, but the temp is low compared to other methods. They work great for 'maintenance' heating on the cheap, drawing very little at the outlet. Can be pricey though.

If you need something quiet that really can crank out the BTUs, I recommend grabbing a Mr. Heater. They work great for camping, ice-fishing trips, or for emergency/supplemental heat during a windy winter storm that took out your power. Most of them have safety features on them like tip over kill switch and C02 sensors. I own a pair of single canister models as well as a double. Way better than kerosene heaters.

 

[Mike64]

While the oil-filled radiator style space heaters are mostly quiet, they are nearly useless. Yes, they do technically heat a portion of the room up, but in general, unless you have a strong draft they only heat the air directly above them and the air along the ceiling.

I don't know about you, but I don't float in mid-air. I certainly don't float in mid-air very long directly above a radiator style space heater. I used a radiator style heater for years and it really didn't help at all. My legs were still frozen even though that radiator space heater was inches away from them. You basically have to constantly play footsie with the radiator to get any warmth from them.

I greatly prefer the space heaters with a fan. Point it at you, turn it on, and you are instantly hotter exactly where you want to be hotter. There is no better option. But, these are loud and don't work with your request.

Have you tried looking into infrared space heaters? I haven't used one but they look like they would be quiet. While they don't put all the heat where you want it like the fan models, at least they aren't heating just the useless air above themselves.

Space heaters are meant, not too surprisingly, to heat "space". I don't know about you, but when I get out of bed in the middle of the night to go pee, I wouldn't have much use for a heater that only works well when pointed directly at my person... Sounds like you were trying to use one as a "personal heater", in an office or something. No, they wouldn't work well in that setting, but then, neither would the charcoal brazier someone else mentioned upthread. But that's more a "wrong tool for the job" issue than a "flawed product" issue... An overhead infrared lamp would probably work best for your purposes, but it's true you might get funny looks if you hang one over your desk/cubicle at work...

because why would trident spend 100$ on a decent one when he could spend 2$k on the BEST ONE EVER MADE?

Ah, now I've got it. I seem to have misplaced my scorecard, without which it gets so-o-o confusing trying to keep track of everyone's little idiosyncrasies...

I've seen the infrared ones that use a squirrel cage fan

How would that even work, or to put it another way, why the fan? Infrared light heats up "stuff", but not air (at least not for practical purposes), so they typically don't have fans (except maybe small ones to heat cool their own innards) and you just point them directly at yourself... And I don't understand how an IR "space heater" could work at all, except maybe a colossally inefficient one that uses IR to to warm some sort of heat sink, which a fan then blows against to distribute warm air throughout the "space" in question...

 

[dullard]

Space heaters are meant, not too surprisingly, to heat "space". I don't know about you, but when I get out of bed in the middle of the night to go pee, I wouldn't have much use for a heater that only works well when pointed directly at my person... Sounds like you were trying to use one as a "personal heater", in an office or something.

Usually we don't need space heaters (other than to protect the pipes from freezing but actual furnaces, heat pumps, etc are best for that job). We usually need personal heaters. Heck, if we all had just perfect personal heaters then we could cut our TOTAL US energy usage by ~20%. Think of the cost savings and climate change reduction. Yes, I know a perfect personal heater doesn't exist. But whenever one is practical, we should use one.

The great thing is that personal heaters are actually space heaters too. Every joule of energy going towards making a person feel comfortable also ultimately goes to making the room warmer. Thus a good personal heater also makes peeing in the middle of the night just as comfortable as a space heater.

The reverse is not true. Space heaters (such as the common oil-filled radiator) don't necessarily make a person feel better at all. Often most of the energy going towards a space heater eventually makes it outside and may or may not ever help a single living soul.

 

[Mike64]

Thus a good personal heater also makes peeing in the middle of the night just as comfortable as a space heater

They make "personal heaters" that will follow you from the bedroom to the bathroom, and back?

Space heaters (such as the common oil-filled radiator) don't necessarily make a person feel better at all.

I dunno know about that. One of those saved me from freezing my balls off during my last winter at college, in a house with a barely-functional oil heater that was supposed to heat the part of the house where my room was, but didn't very well... (It was a big, old house that had been built-by-accretion, with a newer gas furnace heating part, but not all of it, and which was owned by the university, that had no interest in properly repairing or replacing the older oil-furnace heating system. Or for that matter the rather, uh, interesting wiring. Which is why I also know that even set on low (to avoid tripping the breaker constantly), those oil-filled heaters heat "space", and by extension things within that space, quite well actually, at least when the outdoor temperature is above 20F or so and it's not too windy...)

 

[dullard]

They make "personal heaters" that will follow you from the bedroom to the bathroom, and back?

I dunno know about that. One of those saved me from freezing my balls off during my last winter at college, in a house with a barely-functional oil heater that was supposed to heat my part of the house but didn't very well...

You missed my point. Let me try again.

A 1500 W personal heater pointed at the bed will (A) make the people feel great and (B) heats the room up with 1500 W of heat so that your walk to the bathroom is warm. Just be sure not to put it where it would catch your clothing or bed linens on fire.

A 1500 W space heater only necessarily does part (B). It could do part (A) in limited cases. But in many cases the heat is just at the ceiling as it doesn't naturally go towards the people in the room.

I actually took that to the extreme for several years. I set my house temperature to the upper 40s (so the pipes don't freeze). Then I had a heater with a fan at my kitchen table for eating, at my couch for watching TV, at my desk for using the computer, and one on a timer pointed at my bed for sleeping (the timer would kick on so that the bed was toasty before I got into the bedroom). My heating bills dropped from $150/month (gas only, electricity was ~$30/month more) to $50/month (total gas + electricity) and I was far warmer (the air around me was probably in the upper 70s with the fan blowing right at me). I know that isn't for everyone. Safety is a concern to keep in mind. But ultimately it is the way we need to go as a society as energy costs will likely skyrocket.