Electric Resistance Heaters

When building a new house, one of your considerations in planning the blue print is the heating system. There are a lot of ways to provide heat in the house. Electric resistance heating is one of these home heating systems. However it is become less popular. But why do some households and even offices still use this method?

Electric resistance heaters work by converting almost 100% of the energy found in electricity into heat. It is one of the home heating systems considered in the market to be good however it is also billed as the more expensive one. This is true since electricity in big and small cities is produced from fuels such as oil, gas and coal generators. The setback with these fuels is that they only produce 30% of electricity. Because of this apparent shortage of electricity generation and sometimes vast transmission losses electric resistance heating systems become less and less popular. It is said that there is more heat energy released by appliances that fuel on natural gas, LPG and oil furnaces.

The electric resistance heaters can be categorized into electric infrared heaters or electric furnaces, electric baseboard heaters, electric wall heaters, electrical thermal storage and electric portable space heaters.

Electric furnaces are regarded as the most expensive type of electric resistance heater. It is more daunting to operate because of their duct heat losses and much needed energy used to disperse the heat in the air throughout the home or office. The heated air is spread throughout the room through special channels or ducts and will return to the heater or furnace through the return ducts.

The large fans found in electric furnaces are called blowers. These blowers send air over a group of three to seven electric elements each bearing five kilowatts of current. The device also has a built-in thermometer that helps control temperature and rid of possible occurrence of overheating.

Electric baseboard heaters are spot heaters and are usually controlled by thermostats found on a room. These heaters consist of electric heating coils placed in metal pipes that are coated with aluminum fins. The purpose of this is to help and hasten the heat transfer. As the air’s temperature in the heater rises, air moves out to the room and the cooler air is pulled into the lower part of the heater.

This type of electric resistance heaters is typically mounted underneath the windows. This is so because colder air passes through the windows easily and is therefore trapped by the baseboard heaters before they could enter the room. Baseboard heaters are to be placed .75 of an inch above the flooring or carpet. This will permit colder air on the floor to flow beneath and through the radiator blades so it that it can be heated. Some baseboard heaters however are cheaper and may connote substandard performance. It is better to look for products that have seal of authenticity and quality control.

Electric wall heaters are made up of an electric component that has a reflector at the back of it used to radiate heat into the room. This device bears a fan that will move air through the heater. Electric wall heaters are typically mounted on interior walls since they are less effective if they are installed outside of the walls.

In the mean time, electric portable space heaters are used when the primary home heating system is not adequate or when the user finds it too costly to install other forms of heaters. This is more cost effective when only one room is needed to be heated. Or in places like hospitals where allergic and cold sensitive patients require more heat in air temperature.

Electric thermal storage however works differently in terms of charging. Like telephones, rates applied are relatively higher during peak hours where demand is also higher. This is to cut down on energy consumption and user demand during the peak hours. With this however it becomes less costly for users needing heaters only during night time.

More and more people have relied on the use of electric resistance heaters. To be safe though always look for quality assurance marks or seals. Efficient electric heaters can only be purchased in stores that are accredited by the government.