Customer Newsletter, April 2008

Clearing Up the Mystery Behind Portable Heaters

We have received a number of phone calls recently about portable electric heaters. Specifically, many of you have wanted to know if you can save money with these devices. There are a lot of claims circulating about how much money can be saved by portable heaters, with some advertisers claiming to offer savings on heating costs by as much as 50 percent! We'd like to take this opportunity to shed some light on some of your questions and concerns.

First of all, it is important to understand the types of portable electric heaters available:

High Temperature Radiant:
These heaters utilize glowing red heating elements and a mirrored reflector behind the coils. This type of heater does not actually heat the air, but rather beams its warmth directly to people or objects in the room. But, only the objects in the path of the radiant waves emitted from this device will feel warmth.

Natural Convection:
This style of heater distributes heat over a wider surface. They are often designed as a long, slender baseboard, and are warm to the touch. Inside the heater, an oil-like fluid spreads the heat around the surface of the heater. Although the watts used in a natural convection heater are similar to the high temperature radiant, you don't feel the same intense heat that you would feel from the radiant heater.

Fan Forced Heaters:
The fan forced heaters rely on a blower to push air over the heating coils. This type of heater is often referred to as a "mini-furnace", and they actually warm the air in the room . Because they do not rely on a large surface to transfer heat into the air, they are often smaller in size than most designs.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the types of portable heaters available, we'll explain how they differ and how they impact your energy usage. Each of the designs mentioned above use a process called "electric resistance heating", which means that electricity is sent through a material that is "resistant" to the flow of electrical current. The resistant materials will glow as they work to convert electricity into heat. Since all of the previously mentioned heater styles use the same process, they all offer 100% efficiency, so the amount of heat coming out is the same, and so is the amount of electricity "going in". If all three heater types utilized 1,500 watts to operate, then they would deliver the same amount of heat and use energy equally. The only difference is the method used to transfer the warmth from the heating element to the person using the heater. You need to determine for yourself which form of heat you prefer...radiant, natural convection or fan forced.

Zonal Heating
Any of the three previously mentioned portable electric heaters can be used to provide additional warmth. Allowing room-by-room variation in temperature is called "Zonal Heating". This method will only reduce your energy usage if you adjust the setting on your home's heating thermostat, then utilize the space heater in the rooms you are using. Also, the success of zonal heating depends largely upon your home's floor plan. If you have a very "open" floor plan, it is more difficult to divide rooms and heat them on a "zonal" basis. You need to be able to lower the temperature on your home's central heating thermostat for a large percentage of your house, and for a long stretch of the day.

If you have further questions about portable heaters and how they affect your energy usage, please contact Sam Reinke at Southern Power District, at 308-384-2350 or 1-800-652-2013.

INFORMATION SOURCE: National Food & Energy Council

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