EDENPURE ELECTRIC HEATERS

[Todd]

Anyone have one of these? With all the recent posts about trying to heat basements with woodstoves from above, I thought this may be an option for some. It heats with quartz tubes and a small fan. Claims to heat 1000 sq ft and cost under $1 per day or use as much electricty as a coffee maker or hair dryer. What do you think?

www.edenpure.com

 

[begreen]

The electical consumption will be identical regardless of the element. Watts are watts.

 

[BrotherBart]

If it or my Delonghi oil filled radiator either one run for 12 hours a day at 1,500 watts it is about thirty bucks a month. Heat output would be the same but I bought 10 of the oil filed jobbies on closeout at Lowes for $176 bucks total. Lots left over to buy a danged nice end table instead of the one $599 infrared heater.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yes, these units are expensive, and really only worth about a third at most. The nice thing is that I can replace EVERY part on the unit that is prone to breakage. They weigh 65 pounds each.

Most important is that my wife likes them, and feels they are safe to leave unattended.

Worth it right there.

The safety part is what I liked about the oil filled. And I bought the extras because they were cheaper than the cost of sending one in for warranty work. Five of them are resting in the storage building. Since my wife can't feed the stoves anymore I just needed backup in case I couldn't be here for some reason.

 

[Heartwood]

Anyone have one of these? With all the recent posts about trying to heat basements with woodstoves from above, I thought this may be an option for some. It heats with quartz tubes and a small fan. Claims to heat 1000 sq ft and cost under $1 per day or use as much electricty as a coffee maker or hair dryer. What do you think?

www.edenpure.com

Todd, I looked at the edenpures, but one thing turned be away. They boast that you get no additional humidity (as with propane) nor less humidity (as w std elect). I in fact wanted dry heat for my basement, as I know many do.

So I'm still looking. And along those lines... A few posters here mentioned oil-filled. Do they produce a dry heat, or a neuter heat, as above? I suspect they might--possibly even humid heat--since they work as radiators. But I like the idea that they're safer than space heaters. Anyone know?

 

[begreen]

It's marketing BS. They all produce dry heat, as long as the temp is significantly more than the dew point, which in winter is usually a lot below the space you are heating. Even propane heat is dry to as long as you're not venting it into the room. If you are, there's a Darwin award awaiting you.

 

[DiscoInferno]

It's marketing BS. They all produce dry heat, as long as the temp is significantly more than the dew point, which in winter is usually a lot below the space are heating. Even propane heat is dry to as long as you're not venting it into the room. If you are, there's a Darwin award awaiting you.

Agree there. I saw the infomercial for those heaters, it implied (and that may not be a strong enough term) that high-temp electric heating elements "burn off" moisture, somehow making it actually disappear from the air. Utter nonsense.

 

[begreen]

??? :question: ?? I don't own a Yugo, nor Vogelzang either and don't need to try one to understand I don't want one. Though I expect that the EdenPure is much better built.

This may be a fine, but overpriced heater. However, the slick marketing campaign is trying to make it into something it is not - special. That to me is a real turn off. What it is is a big, heavy electric space heater. If you can get one for under $100 and don't mind its size, then great.

This craze seems to come in cycles. It happened when oil-filled heaters first came out, then ceramic and quartz heaters and way before that with water-filled heaters. They all use the same amount of electricity and none of them varies from the other with regard to humidification or oxygen depletion. That marketing reference is towards propane and kerosene space heaters, not other electric heaters.

I have an electric heater in my office. Often they are the best solution for space heating. But I think that the guiding principal in purchasing one should be safety, size, quietness (important for me in an office), speed of heating and price. Other worthwhile conveniences might be: multi-wattage, timer, wheels (if large). There are many heaters well below $100 that fit these requirements.

Here's what I have in my office. It used to be made by Braun. It is muti-wattage, quiet, small, low to the ground (hard to tip) and I've had it for about 15 years. All for the $35 I think I paid for it back in the early 90's.
Caframo model 9206: (broken link removed to http://www.caframo.com/heaters.htm)


Todd, if you are looking for a permanent, safe solution, consider an Intertherm (now Cadet - Softheat)baseboard electric heater. They are quite & safe because it heats a water filled copper tube. That keeps it from getting too hot to ignite curtains, etc. if they should inadvertently come in contact with the heater. Cadet Softheat makes them in permanent baseboard (220v) or portable (120v) styles.

With any electric heater, be sure the circuit is matched correctly to handle the load.

http://www.prosupplyco.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=44
http://www.electricsupplyonline.com/prod/baseboard_heaters-cadet.php

 

[Heartwood]

Todd, if you are looking for a permanent, safe solution, consider an Intertherm (now Cadet - Softheat)baseboard electric heater. They are quite & safe because it heats a water filled copper tube. That keeps it from getting too hot to ignite curtains, etc. if they should inadvertently come in contact with the heater. Cadet Softheat makes them in permanent baseboard (220v) or portable (120v) styles.

I'm very interested in this advice, too. Because I'm no HVAC expert or electrician, can I ask whether there's any efficiency advantage to 220v over the portable? (If it's minimal or nonexistant, that would justify avoiding the install cost of 220, and I'd have the advantage of portability. On the other hand, if there's substantially more efficiency with less cycling or some such other, I'd get it installed.)

 

[begreen]

The advantage for 240v is a larger range of wattages, smaller wire size for the same wattage as 120v, and more than one can be connected together on a circuit and controlled by a single room thermostat. For a large area requiring more than one heater, I'd use 240v. But if one heater will cover the room and there is a 120v circuit adequate to handle the load, then the 120v is as efficient - 100%. I like the portable for it's flexibility and have used mine in a variety locations.

 

[richg]

Consumer Reports blasted the Edenpure and gave it ratings similar to the Ionic Breeze.

 

[Todd]

I was looking at these heaters for a woman I know at work that keeps her house at 55 during the winter months because she can't afford to pay for propane. I thought an efficient electric heater might cut her some slack in her propane bill, but it may just even out in the electric bill. I think she also has alot of air leaks and poor insulation, so I'm going to check her place out and see if I can help.

 

[begreen]

Good plan Todd. You are a good friend. Maybe you can get the livingroom tighter and just space heat there with a simple electric heater?

 

[Nofossil]

The marketing hype on electric heaters makes me crazy. No matter how you dress up a pig, it's still a pig. As already mentioned many times, all electric heaters produce the EXACT same amount of heat per watthour. In most areas, electicity is the most expensive form of energy.

BUT - sometimes a pig is good, dressed up or not.

Some electric heaters have a very real advantage compared to most other forms of heat. Woodstoves (not boilers) and fireplaces share this advantage - radiant heat. People feel warm of cold based on three things:

1) The temperature of the air next to their skin
2) Air velocity next to their skin
3) The temperature and radiating characteristics of any nearby or line-of-sight surfaces

Some electric heaters have an element that's hot enough to heat via infrared radiation. This can make you feel warm at much cooler actual room temperatures, thereby (possibly) saving energy. It's also immediate, whereas heating a whole room takes time. Radiant heat makes you feel god. That's why we like sunshine, fireplaces, and woodstoves.

Radiant heat is a cool, useful, and poorly understood phenomenon. If you ever have three or four sheets of foil-faced foam board, make a three or four walled enclosure and stand in it - ideally lightly clothed on a cool day. Foil reflects 98% of the radiant energy coming off your body - you will be warm instantly.

On a winter night, stand a few feet away from a big window (not low-e) lightly clothed with your eyes closed. Have someone quietly move a sheet of foil-faced foam board between you and the window. You can easily tell when the board is there.

Bottom line: Any electric heater that just heats the air is identical in performance to any other, and all of them cost the same to operate - probably much more than oil, gas, propane or wood. However, a heater that provides focused infrared radiation that warm bodies rather than the room air might have some advantages.

 

[Nofossil]

Sorry - I didn't mean to imply that there is no difference in quality - just that there is no difference in efficiency. I stand by the efficiency statement, although I'll reiterate my main point, which is that electric heaters that generate radiant heat can make you feel warmer than the actual BTU output would accomplish if it was just heating the air.

 

[webbie]

Call me paranoid, but I go for the oil filled heaters every time. Between the convection heat, and the fact that you don't have to worry about red hot elements, I feel these are the safest. Something about 100% plastic and red hot electric elements does not make me happy (when they are close together).

I am so cautious that I usually only turn on one element, even in the oil filled (800 watts on one).

 

[bcnu]

So help me out on this one. We have renters in a 1972 mobile home on our property. The original heat pump is long gone. The electric furnace works but can cost $250-300 a month I've looked at a number of alternative heat sources(we took out a small wood stove and the renters don't really want it for now.) Can't justify new heat pump, direct vent heating oil or propane stoves too expensive. I've read previous threads on electric heaters and have the recent Cons. Report magazine with electric heater info. I'm just trying to help renters heat the living room and kitchen - probably 300 Sq ft in all. Perhaps most any electric unit will be better than what we "don't" have now. I'm leaning toward trying an oil filled. I like the idea of the 120v baseboard one. Can anyone supply a brand name to look for - or are they pretty much all the same?

 

[jjbaer]

The electical consumption will be identical regardless of the element. Watts are watts.

I agree...unless it's a heat pump with a "magnification factor" (and it's not, so "watts are watts"). Read what they say about how a conventional heater sends heat to the ceiling (because a convection heater heats the air and a fan blows it out and it rises to the ceiling) vs this one which has an infrared element in it. Infrared travels by line of sight and heats objects it contacts but it might also have a fan on it...not sure..... Big overall picture though, 1 KW, say, for 1 hr (1 KW-hr) taken from the wall outlet will only deliver 3,412 BTU in that one hour, regardless of what type of resistive element you connect to it. So, you may personally like a radiant heater over a convection one, but the heat delivered is the same.

As to the claim of heating 1,000 sq ft on $1 per day, lets look at that. At say, 10 cents/KW-hr, $1 buys 10 KW-hrs which is 34,120 BTU's. MY home is 1700 sq ft and is well insulated and in a cold December I use about 12,500,000 BTU's in the month (costs $125 using no wood heat) or about 416,000 BTU's per day. Scale to a 1,000 sq ft house and you'd get about 245,000 BTU/day which is 72 KW-hrs which would cost $7.20/day for electric and this assumes a fair price of 10 cents/KW-hr. At MA electric prices, you're talking about $12/day...... So...their claim of $1/day is PURE FICTION!! More like $200-$300/month......

As we say in thermodynamics: the nth law of thermodynamics is "there ain't no free lunches".........

 

[jjbaer]

If it or my Delonghi oil filled radiator either one run for 12 hours a day at 1,500 watts it is about thirty bucks a month. Heat output would be the same but I bought 10 of the oil filed jobbies on closeout at Lowes for $176 bucks total. Lots left over to buy a danged nice end table instead of the one $599 infrared heater.

That's 18 KW-hrs so to keep it at $1/day running 12 hrs per day continuous at 1500 watts means one of two things: 1) if it's 1500 watts continuous, this means your price per KW-hr would have to be 5.5 cents/KW-hr or 2) since your price is probably closer to 15 cents/KW-hr, this means they run for about 4.4 hrs per day at 1500 watts. The first means 18 KW-hrs or 61,416 BTU's/day which cannot heat an entire home and the second means 22,519 BTU/day which also cannot heat an entire home. So, you might be spending only $1/day but you're far far from being able to heat an entire home with $1/day. Even a 1,000 sq ft house at these rates would require about $200/month to heat.... My guess that your $1/day heats a workshop or 300 sq ft room....

 

[ilmbg]

I have a friend here in northern Wyoming that does have one. She got it last winter, and went to use it about two weeks ago for the first time this winter. Nothing-nada-zip. The Edenpure company will honor the warrenty (I don't know exactly what it is), but she has to send the whole unit back for them to look at it, as there is nobody here to look at it. She has to pay for the shipping! When it did work, as I am at her house frequently, I noticed how 'gentle' the heat it- I could not image using it to heat a house! This one was being used a few feet away fron the recliner- about 4-5 feet. The house furnace was being used- just was put about 2 degrees lower. This is just my opinion, but I think it depends on how much your electric cost- is it worth it to run all day/nite? You have to fork out the bucks to buy it- then spend the money to run it.

 

[laynes69]

Dad has one and so far so good. Last month his electric bill was 120.00 Which is an all electric home and a large hottub in the basement. His floorplan is open and probably a little more than a 1000 sq feet of open area. His heatpump hasnt ran and his furnace hasn't ran at all. It has been in the 30's to high 20's at night and 40's to low 50's in the daytime. This next electric bill he gets will tell me more. The thing with him is the house is only 5 years old and well insulated. They claim his will heat up to 1000 sq ft. His is heating more right now. He paid 299 for his. 100 off and free shipping. He is looking into getting one for his basement. He would be burning wood right now, but he hasn't had to. Which saves him money.