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Electric Heaters
- Convenient & Cost Effective |
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Most heaters are usually powered by either
electricity or fuel, and while both
types of heaters have their own individual benefits, electric
heaters seem to be the most popular option because they are often
inexpensive to purchase and easy to maintain.
Electric heaters primarily work by converting electricity into heat
via an electric resistor within the heater, and an electric current
flowing through the resistor then coverts the electric energy into
heat energy.
Some of the benefits of an
electric heater are obvious - electricity is available anywhere, and
electric heaters do not require any fuel to be stored.
It is also important to understand safety issues
when purchasing a heater. New models of electric heaters are required to pass
rigid safety tests in order to ensure safe operation.
Wire grills, tilt switches, automatic shutoff controls, and
thermostat controls are all safety features to look for.
Although all electric heaters use the same basic principle to
generate heat, there are variations in how
electric heaters provide this heat to the environment. Here are some
different electric heating methods available:
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Convection Heaters
These types of
electric heaters are great for providing background warmth for a closed space.
Convection heaters warm the air near the element or body of the
heater by using air convection currents to generate heat, and these
currents circulate throughout the appliance and across its heating
element. Examples of convection heaters are
oil-filled radiators, which are perfect for personal spaces
such as under desks and
electric baseboard heaters, which are great for heating
rooms such as a bedroom or lounge area.
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Infrared Heaters (or Radiant Heaters)
Infrared heaters transfer thermal energy via electromagnetic waves,
and all infrared heaters share one common characteristic: heat is
emitted or radiated from the heated object or substance, and only
objects are warmed (as opposed to entire areas). In general,
infrared
heaters are energy efficient and great for multi-purpose
use, but they are especially
effective for
industrial use such as warehouses and even greenhouses where
high temperatures are required to be quickly reached. |
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Fan Heaters
A fan heater is a type of convection heater that uses a fan to
pass air over a heating element in order to speed up the airflow.
This heating element heats the air, the air leaves the heater, and
the surrounding area is warmed. This can result in extremely rapid
heating in a room, but these may not be the best choice if sound is a concern, as fan-type
heaters can sometimes be noisy. However, fan heaters work well in
areas where installing other types of heating devices would be
impractical, and examples of fan
heaters would be portable
fan garage
heaters, which are placed on the floor and provide blasts of
warm air onto the body. |
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