The USA Today news paper runs a full page at least once a week on the Heat Surge electric heaters. It is supposed to heat a room and use only 8 cents of electricity an hour. Has anyone purchased one of these units? I can not see how it would heat a room. They also state it produces 5,119 BTU's--I do not know how long it would take to produce this much heat. The Amish are involved in building mantles for these heaters. Raises a few questions.
HEAT SURGE
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This is pretty much a "do the math" deal. To convert BTUs into watt-hrs you multiply by 0.2931. So that 5119 BTU unit is drawing about 1.5 kw-hr worth of electricty. Multiply that times your electric rate to get your actual cost. 8 cents would then equate to a rate of about 5.3 cents per kw-hr, and that's pretty low by today's standards. But a room heater drawing 1,500 watts is pretty typical, and I bet that's exactly what this one is.
Now you need to determine whether or not a 1,500 watt heater is enough to heat a room and the answer is "it depends". That might be enough to heat an average size room if the ambient temp. is modest, low drafts, good insulation, etc. How heat is delivered can make a big difference also. Radiant heat might be most effective, because with that method you are heating objects instead of the air mass. But the objects need to be fairly close to the heat source to feel comfortable. Forced air or convective heat often feels better, but that means heating the whole space and it might take a higher power input to do that to the same effective temp. 1500 watts is about the upper limit for a space heater that plugs into a standard 120 volt wall outlet. That translates to 12.5 amps and a household circuit on a standard 20-amp breaker can only sustain max. 16 amps continuously. You probably have other items plugged into that same circuit as well.
I can't see where the Heat Surge is any better than other space heaters, and that's not to knock the Amish, a group I respect in many ways. The units are expensive ($250 ea.?) and you're paying a good chunk of that money for the fine woods and craftsmanship and the "fireplace" aura. But in terms of heating efficiency there would be better options IMHO...
AFTERTHOUGHT: I just saw a 2-page ad from a Sunday supplement. I got a real chuckle of the image of several of these units loaded into an Amish horse-drawn wagon, like they're being hauled home. You can bet the Amish aren't buying these! Most don't have electricity, at least not in the main house (in the milkhouse, maybe), and to be sure they always do their homework before parting with any of their hard-earned $$...!
PPS - $249 is just for the heating unit. With the mantle must cost more...
Now you need to determine whether or not a 1,500 watt heater is enough to heat a room and the answer is "it depends". That might be enough to heat an average size room if the ambient temp. is modest, low drafts, good insulation, etc. How heat is delivered can make a big difference also. Radiant heat might be most effective, because with that method you are heating objects instead of the air mass. But the objects need to be fairly close to the heat source to feel comfortable. Forced air or convective heat often feels better, but that means heating the whole space and it might take a higher power input to do that to the same effective temp. 1500 watts is about the upper limit for a space heater that plugs into a standard 120 volt wall outlet. That translates to 12.5 amps and a household circuit on a standard 20-amp breaker can only sustain max. 16 amps continuously. You probably have other items plugged into that same circuit as well.
I can't see where the Heat Surge is any better than other space heaters, and that's not to knock the Amish, a group I respect in many ways. The units are expensive ($250 ea.?) and you're paying a good chunk of that money for the fine woods and craftsmanship and the "fireplace" aura. But in terms of heating efficiency there would be better options IMHO...
AFTERTHOUGHT: I just saw a 2-page ad from a Sunday supplement. I got a real chuckle of the image of several of these units loaded into an Amish horse-drawn wagon, like they're being hauled home. You can bet the Amish aren't buying these! Most don't have electricity, at least not in the main house (in the milkhouse, maybe), and to be sure they always do their homework before parting with any of their hard-earned $$...!
PPS - $249 is just for the heating unit. With the mantle must cost more...
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It's junk, more or less. Electric heaters are pretty fixed in efficiency, you can get the same heat for less money from other electric space heaters (or other sources). And electric resistance heat is about the most expensive, never mind their claims. I'll bet they're pretty hokey-looking when you get close enough to touch one. Fake fire. Really. How novel. 
The Amish just build mantles that these guys use for differentiating their product.
The Amish just build mantles that these guys use for differentiating their product.
I see that advert all the time in the USA today (I seem to live in hotels these days).. I alway interpreted that picture (the horse-drawn wagon), as transit from the factory to a store, UPS, etc.
It does: Oak is $298.00, Cherry is $338.00. Those are the costs with the mantel according to the website.
AFTERTHOUGHT: I just saw a 2-page ad from a Sunday supplement. I got a real chuckle of the image of several of these units loaded into an Amish horse-drawn wagon, like they're being hauled home. You can bet the Amish aren't buying these! Most don't have electricity, at least not in the main house (in the milkhouse, maybe), and to be sure they always do their homework before parting with any of their hard-earned $$...!
Or maybe that's the picture of the Amish hauling it to your house? Still LMAO!
Or maybe that's the picture of the Amish hauling it to your house? Still LMAO!
Of course you're right about that, but you can bet the Amish don't ship by horse and wagon either. They have entirely too much respect for their horses...! I suspect they work in mills close to their farms and all the shipping is done from there by "normal" means...
Sidebar: Amish around here are really caught-up in the times. They are entrepreneurs, so they make a handsome living off non-Amish consumption. They are great as (sub)contractors, but their religion won't allow them to own or operate motor vehicles to get to the jobsites. So they hire a bus or minivan with driver! They all have cell phones, but they aren't allow to take them home or use them on their own properties (well, maybe in the aforementioned milkhouse near the main road, where the landline used to stop!), so they leave them in their workclothes or the vans. They can't charge them at home of course. So while on the job site, the bus will have a cigarette lighter adapter with 3-4 plugged-in charging at a time! A real anachronism is a horse-drawn hay cutter operating in an Amish field...with a 10-hp Kohler gas-powered engine turning the blades...!
No, I do much of my heating with a REAL fire (see my "Chainsaw" thread...)
BRgds all...and have a safe, WARM weekend...!
Electric resistance heat is all the same. It's all essentially 100% efficient. 1 watt in = 1 watt out. It does not matter what the heaters look like, whether or not they are ceramic or whatever revolutionary "break throughs" they come up with .
Any electric heater puts out the same heat per watt as the other.
Now heat pumps using refrigerant (basically and air conditioner ran backward for winter) will give you typically 3x per watt than a resistance heater.
1 watt in=3 watts out for heatpumps
Geo thermal heat pumps I think are even higher returns since you are extracting heat from the earth and not trying to pull heat from colder air.
I thought about experimenting with a window air conditioner-
Install a relay that is controlled by a heating thermostat across the compressor/fan leads.
Install a freeze stat so if the coils start to freeze it will shut down the unit until the coil de-ice.
Turn it around with the rear of the AC into the house and the front is outside. I bet it would be like a redneck heatpump LOL
Any electric heater puts out the same heat per watt as the other.
Now heat pumps using refrigerant (basically and air conditioner ran backward for winter) will give you typically 3x per watt than a resistance heater.
1 watt in=3 watts out for heatpumps
Geo thermal heat pumps I think are even higher returns since you are extracting heat from the earth and not trying to pull heat from colder air.
I thought about experimenting with a window air conditioner-
Install a relay that is controlled by a heating thermostat across the compressor/fan leads.
Install a freeze stat so if the coils start to freeze it will shut down the unit until the coil de-ice.
Turn it around with the rear of the AC into the house and the front is outside. I bet it would be like a redneck heatpump LOL
Thanks for your feedback.
We’ve set up a Web site to share the facts about our company at http://heatsurge.wordpress.com
We’ve set up a Web site to share the facts about our company at http://heatsurge.wordpress.com
I can get a portable baseboard or radiant heater for about 30 bucks. No fancy cabinet, no mantle, no fake fire , but does the same job at the same price.
If you want the fancy piece of furniture, that's one thing. If you just want to heat a room there are much less expensive ways to do this. Depends what you want. Pretty much everything that's on the web page also applies to any other electric heater. The savings and operational costs are, however, misleading - operating costs depend where you live and what your utility rates are. The claim of saving on natural gas is questionable for most areas. Gas right now is as cheap as it's been in a decade, and with a high efficiency furnace the electric heater is likely far more expensive to operate than by shutting off a gas furnace.
If you want the fancy piece of furniture, that's one thing. If you just want to heat a room there are much less expensive ways to do this. Depends what you want. Pretty much everything that's on the web page also applies to any other electric heater. The savings and operational costs are, however, misleading - operating costs depend where you live and what your utility rates are. The claim of saving on natural gas is questionable for most areas. Gas right now is as cheap as it's been in a decade, and with a high efficiency furnace the electric heater is likely far more expensive to operate than by shutting off a gas furnace.
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