Since it’s starting to get cold here in North America (or already is cold, depending on where you are), I thought I’d remind people that if they are looking to buy a plug-in space heater, be sure to check the wattage. In the US, most standard household circuits are limited to 15 amps at 120 volts, or 1800 watts. But that is for the entire circuit (every outlet connected to the same breaker), and you don’t necessarily want to run right at the maximum rating, so just about every plug-in space heater in the US maxes out at 1500 watts. Yes, that gigantic fake fireplace and that tiny cube heater are both 1500w. And since electric heating is effectively 100% efficient (all of the energy is turned into heat), on a fundamental level they both “produce” the same amount of heat. Now, there can be some differences in build quality or how that heat is delivered that may be worth paying for (e.g. if you want directional IR radiant heating like a dish heater, or you want a no-hot-surfaces heater like an oil radiator), and there can be extra bells and whistles like timers or thermostats or extra safety features, etc. But from an actual heat production standpoint, for something like a hot coil or ceramic fan-blown space heater, a small $20 heater will produce the exact same amount of heat as a huge $100 heater if they have the same maximum wattage.
October 25, 2018 at 08:56AM
