Space Heater Nonsense

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Unless my understanding of the universe is deeply flawed, something about space heaters just doesn’t add up. In this video, I talk about that.

So, why did I make this a second time? Well hop on over to here and we’ll talk about it;

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[hindsight_is_]

My advice is buy an Xbox and a 32" tv . My son's room is 10 degrees warmer than any other room in the house ! 😃

[CTimmerman]

I'd argue the cheap ones are better at heating since they're more likely to start a fire.

[HansDelbruck]

Reminds me of the old proverb:
"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

[tekrit]

Id argue the oil heater wins a few points for the popping sounds it makes as it heats up. Very comfy.

[RFC]

Makes perfect sense that the smaller heater is meant for a small room, even if it's higher power, because if your room is really small, the medium heater won't fit inside it.

[prairiebrewer]

I love the ads "uses only as much energy as your coffee maker" meanwhile...your coffee maker uses 1500 watts. You just don't have it on all day.

[tgeliot]

Many moons ago I worked at IBM. They had a rule against space heaters. But they had a lot of obsolete computers stored. So if you were cold, you just went and got a computer or two, stuck them under your desk, and turned them on. They were only maybe 500 watts each, but it would warm up the space under your desk.

[williardbillmore]

I recently installed a 97% efficient gas furnace in my house and when I heard that the price of natural gas was going to go up by a lot in December I also installed a set back timed thermostat to turn it down at night. I kept the thermostat set fairly low both day and night trying to keep the bill down.
What I didn't know is that two of my roommates had electric heaters going all day and night in their rooms...at the end of the month I got the energy bill and it was insanely higher than it had ever been before. I know that electricity is the most expensive way to heat anything.
At the beginning of January we had a meeting and we agreed that I would turn up the furnace thermostat to a much warmer comfortable temperature if they would unplug their electric heaters and stop using them altogether.
I just got my energy bill (gas and electricity combined) for January and the bill was exactly HALF as much as December's bill. I knew that it would probably be lower but I never expected it to be THAT much lower.
Lesson learned.

[ethiopiop]

why did i watch this i live in a desert

disclaimer because i *still* get replies about this: no i dont live in every desert on the planet, and i am now very aware that deserts can be cold. thank you

[bibasik]

What's the point of a space heater if you can buy an Intel Core i9 processor?

[ClemensKatzer]

Just buy the miracle heaters from China, which are labelled "150% efficiency" :)

[kingforaday]

I remember the old gas space heaters. My great grandmother had one with five or six fire bricks that on one surface had a "forest" of tiny evenly spaced cone shaped projections. The heater was across from the foot of a bed. Those projections at the bottom closest to the flame when hot would glow a shimmering pumpkin orange color. I remember on cold, quite winter nights staring into the fire box watching the cones change different shades or orange up and down the column of little cones, rarely reaching the top rows of cones. The "hissing" sound of the gas coming out of the gas jets, occasionally a "spark" would come flying out of the flames (i always imagined it was a bug of some kind that had gotten to close to the flame). Sometimes in the background a cold wind could be heard be whistling though the poorly fitting windows. Hypnotized by this I would eventually fall asleep and awaken to the smell of bacon, fresh biscuits and "breakfast is ready".

[IDTpig]

Haha my $10 space heater from Walmart has worked great for the past 4 years. Good on you for pointing out this bogus marketing.

[Timothy-NH]

An important word on space heaters: STOP PLUGGING THEM INTO POWER STRIPS! If you can’t plug it directly into an outlet, get a quality extension cord, the shortest you can get to do the job.

As an IT professional, I can’t tell you how many melted down, turning brown or black power strips I have found over the years with space heaters plugged into them. In addition, how many glitchy computer problems I have solved by removing the space heater from the same strip the computer is plugged into.

[walmartdog]

Years ago, I was heating two bathrooms, one with a waffle iron, the other with a pop corn popper, both with the 1500 watt heating elements exposed.

[notbasilcount]

Watching this while crossing Transylvania in a train with a broken heating system during autumn, thank you for helping me imagine what warmth feels like

[grecolonsvila]

The bigger the heater is, the more space in the room it takes and thus the less space in the room it has to warm.
Yes, call me big brain.

[justforheckofit]

I am an HVAC guy for last 30 years and really enjoyed the video from the point of view how to educate customers. Very nice narration. I do not know if you did any video on explaining that if coming to a cold house, turning thermostat way high will NOT heat the house any faster. It just makes you having to go back and turning it to comfortable level some time later. I deal with that all the time. Also, about ventilation - opening the window just a crack will not really ventilate, it is just a heat loss spot with little of actual air exchange happening. And that goes for both heating or cooling season.

[MaximRecoil]

If I manufactured 1, 500-watt space heaters I'd market them as 2 horsepower.

[FINNIUSORION]

As a person that's lived in very cold climates in motorhomes and trailers I've tried everything. For electric heaters the radiator style oil heaters definitely work better for keeping an area at a constant temp.. but none of them compare to a good woodstove.