Electric Space Heater

[All American 6]

First cool temp camping today - 46 degrees. I've learned what most of you already know. A space heater isn't going to heat the trailer. Guess I'll have to learn how to fire up the trailer's heater.

Lesson 2: the GFCI didn't like the heater and coffee pot at the same time. Although, it did almost perk the whole pot prior to tripping.

[jelliott]

Originally Posted by All American 6

First cool temp camping today - 46 degrees. I've learned what most of you already know. A space heater isn't going to heat the trailer. Guess I'll have to learn how to fire up the trailer's heater.

Lesson 2: the GFCI didn't like the heater and coffee pot at the same time. Although, it did almost perk the whole pot prior to tripping.

46 degrees? That aint cool temp camping? Just kidding! That's still shorts weather here in Idaho.

[3wheeler]

The fireplace and a small space heater in the garage works great on mine down to the mid thirties.

[Tanman]

its not the gfci that doesnt like the heater its the way they wire the circuits. when our coffee pot is brewing we put one space heater on the bath circuit and one on the bay circuit.. then they dont blow circuits. The coffee pot and the space heater pull too many amps together on a 15 amp circuit. Real cheezy voltage management.

[nineoaks]

A small ceramic heater works great in mine it even heated a POP up when we had one. The one you are using is the wrong type and uses too many amps, get a small ceramic heater with a thermostat, they are cheap and use very few amps.

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by nineoaks

A small ceramic heater works great in mine it even heated a POP up when we had one. The one you are using is the wrong type and uses too many amps, get a small ceramic heater with a thermostat, they are cheap and use very few amps.

Read the tag... the ceramic heaters pull just as many amps heating as any other electrical heater. The difference is in the cycling of it.

I have wide variety of heaters, all of my small electric heaters pull right at 15 amps at full power. Including the ceramic heaters. Occasionally you may see one that pulls a bit less but it won't have the output that the others do. It is basic electrics, power in, heat out. A 1500 watt heater is going to pull 12.5 amps for the element then a couple more for the blower.

Where there ceramic heater has an advantage is it's compact size and the fact that once it is warmed up it uses less total energy to maintain it's temperature. We have thermal air welders at work that use an electric element wrapped around a ceramic core, they can generate temps up close to 1100°F for welding plastics and other polymers. They also pull a solid 18 amps when they first crank up, once running they drop down to around 12.5 amps.

Aaron

[snakebitten]

Don't know much about all the various methods that these modern "space heaters" use, but I do know the newer ones have safety features and far more user controls than when I was growing up.

Also, Aaron accurately points out that the actual consumption of 1500 watts is going to result in the same amount of electrical load (and consumption), regardless of how clever the device uses that power to create and distribute heat.

I have one of these that I purchased last year.



Lifesmart 1500-Watt 6-Element Large Room Infrared Bulb Heater with Remote-ZCHT1001US - The Home Depot
Admittedly, I do not live in the most frigid environment.
But this little fella can heat up a few hundred square feet easily enough. And I can go to sleep without the fears I had as a child that the dog might catch the house on fire with the space heater.


This one rolls around very smoothly. And it projects the hot air upwardly at about a 45 degree angle. So sitting on the floor and set a few feet away from the bed, the warm air directly hits me where I'm laying.

[wahoonc]

My FIL has one of the infrared heaters similar to that, he keeps it near his chair in the den.

I have a pretty decent sized collection of heaters that have accumulated over the years. The small cube style ceramic heaters are among my favorite for spot heating. I also have a few of the LP fired portable Buddy Heaters for when the power goes out. I can use those to keep the house from freezing up if the power goes out during an ice storm. I use the extension hoses and put a 20# LP tank in a milk crate and leave it outside, run the hose in a window, pack a towel around it and keep the house from going totally frozen.

Aaron