Electric Heater efficiency

[Geffers]

As winter approaches one often gets adverts for heaters developed by some student who's dad was a rocket technician and these heaters can heat up a warehouse in 2 minutes. Well maybe I have exaggerated slightly but you have probably seen them.

From what I understand 1kW is one kW whether it is a £400 Dyson or a £20 Robert Dyas blow heater. A blow heater is effectively a convection heater, the latter has air that circulates upwards whereas the blow heater blows it forward then the air convects upwards, I guess the advantage of a blow heater over a convector is the former can direct warm air flow to heat a specific area quicker but the overall room may not heat any quicker than a convector. Appreciate style, mounting and control options are important, many cheaper units have awful thermostats but am wondering; is there any extra heating efficiency to a £400 Dyson over a £20 Robert Dyas heater?

Looked on the Dyson site at the specs for their £400 heaters and oddly cannot find the wattage, maybe if one can afford £400 for a blow heater then that person is not going to worry about silly things like running costs.

Geffers

 

[Retro]

Oh yeah, those scammy ads with big claims.

Indeed a unit of energy is the same regardless of the cost of design of the device. The only difference is the efficiency with which that heat is distributed. I wouldn't think that there's much difference regardless of price.

Those "fanless" Dyson fans are a con too. They say there's no fan, but there is, in the base. They charge stupid money for something that looks fancy, but doesn't work any better than a conventional fan. A while back, The Action Lab did a video to test this, asking if it's a scam and found that the Dyson actually had less airflow than a fan on its own. Check it out:

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[Hitcore]

I like the bit at the end of the video.

"Hey, wanna see my bladeless fan?"

-- "Oh wow, you're so much cooler now."

Nice pun, and of course very tongue-in-cheek. But it is actually that sort of thought why people fall for marketing traps.

 

[Geffers]

I like the bit at the end of the video.

"Hey, wanna see my bladeless fan?"

-- "Oh wow, you're so much cooler now."

Nice pun, and of course very tongue-in-cheek. But it is actually that sort of thought why people fall for marketing traps.

Yes, funny comment.

Odd how people can get sucked in (pun intended) to these ideas.

 

[Geffers]

Getting back to my heater comment, sitting right in front of a blow heater one can feel it nicely, but guess it'd be just as good sitting in front of a radiant heater too. The moment the hot air gets blown forward it effectively gets diluted as it mixes with surrounding air.

One wonders how the advertising authority allows these wild claims about various heaters.

 

[Hitcore]

The moment the hot air gets blown forward it effectively gets diluted as it mixes with surrounding air.

Exactly this.
They also consume so much energy, while the output is below par. An absolute waste.

One wonders how the advertising authority allows these wild claims about various heaters.

What's worse is that often space heaters' safety standards are in practice also not met, and are a major cause in house fires. Yet they are advertised as safe. Advertising authorities are a joke.