On Mon, 2005-07-03 at 20:33 -0500, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > Well, now you can show off and explain why some heaters are more efficient > than other heaters. I'm interested. :-) I've never seen an efficiency rating on an electric heater. I have seen some that were labelled "high-efficiency", which was no doubt put there by the marketing department. Oil and gas furnaces certainly do have efficiency ratings. The energy loss in that case is in the form of both heat and unburnt fuel going up the chimney. > Or does it not matter which heater I buy at Canadian Tire - as long as > I look at the capacity rating, I'll know it will cost me the exact > same in electrical costs? You got it. It will have a rating in watts. The more watts, the more heat it will put out. Price differences for heaters with the same rating may or may not indicate quality differences - but they will provide the same amount of heat for the same operating cost. Efficiency and operating costs are not the same thing when comparing different energy sources, of course. Even an old, inefficient oil furnace may heat your house more cheaply than electricity if oil is cheap and electricity is expensive. In my case, my hot water baseboard heaters are supplied by an old oil boiler that I am going to replace this summer. I did the calculations, and a new oil boiler will save me about 25%, but an electric boiler will save me about 50%. Definitely worth the cost of the new furnace! > mark (who might be full of crap in his doubt and disbelief of Brian's > electrical engineering logic claiming that, for a house that requires > heating, running a computer 24/7 is virtually free...) Only in the winter! :-) This is getting really off topic, BTW, we should take it off list...
