Space heaters??

[Kstornado11]

What are the best/safest? We are renting a small old farm house,and the first year we used propane heat,then the heater broke. The LL gave us a box-type heater, a Sunheat http://www.sunheat.com/ but it does NOT heat the house as needed. I HATE space heaters,especially w/ the baby crawling,but that's the only alternative. Can anyone recommend a good ,safe,inexpensive one?

[brewswain]

KsTornado, May I piggyback on your thread?
I am looking for a vented propane heater that has a thermostat and requires no electricity.
Thanks Bruce Wayne

[tamsam]

Northerntool.com sells propane heaters and you can mount them on a wall at any height you want. Good luck finding what you want. Sam

[calliemoonbeam]

Last winter, I tried five different space heaters (including the ones that look like a cast iron stove) and ended up taking them all back until I came across the one I have now. It's not pretty, lol, but it does a great job. It has two settings, 750 and 1500 watts. If you have a really old house you might have trouble with the highest wattage, but I'm in a 30-year-old mobile home running it on a 15-amp outlet with no problem.

I heated a 14 x 20 room, plus a 6 x 8 bathroom and a 12-foot long hall with just one of these as the only heat source, and it kept it plenty warm and only raised the bill by about $10 a month. They sell for $15 at Walmart. HTH.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=7768641

P.S. I have put it up on the bathroom vanity without it overheating the area and with no problems, so maybe you could find a way to put it up out of the baby's reach somewhere. You should not set it directly on carpet though.

[busybee870]

i have a HUGE propane heater 50,000BTU, made by siegler in the 60's, works great has vents at the bottom that blow warm air across the floor. Im asking 100 dollars for it brewswain, i dont know where you are. it takes 2 strong men to lift it. It vents out the back.

[WisJim]

Originally Posted by brewswain

KsTornado, May I piggyback on your thread?
I am looking for a vented propane heater that has a thermostat and requires no electricity.
Thanks Bruce Wayne

BackWoods Solar sells the Cozyheat gas wall heaters that require no electricity (unless you add a fan), and have sealed combustion chambers vented to the outside. http://www.backwoodssolar.com/

[brewswain]

thank you wisJim--right under my nose!!

busybee you got mail

[Hooligan]

brewswain,

You should also check out the vented propane heaters made by ESKABE.

I needed one last year and ended up purchasing one of these because they were considerably less expensive then most others.

It's been a good unit so far.

[hiswife]

the one that the link goes to says that heater is not available in the store. Does anyone have any other suggestions, my propane tank has been empty for months and I was sticking with it but last night was 22 and I was very cold even in bed with hot water bottles, 2 dogs and my husband, tonight is forecast for 16 so I have to do something before I get frostbite!

[Nevada]

You've got lots of choices for space heaters.

Fuels

Most of us are pretty much stuck with propane or kerosene, since we're off the beaten path. If you have natural gas or economical electricity that's fine, but I'll concentrate on propane & kerosene.

Kerosene is a little cheaper than propane on a btu to btu basis. The nice thing about propane furnaces is that 10K btu/hour and larger models are most often equipped with a thermostat, while kerosene heaters are normally adjusted manually. For unvented furnaces you'll find propane to be much healthier than kerosene, and with propane your clothes won't smell like kerosene.

How big of a heater to get

Typical insulated 2x4 structures will normally require 50 to 70 btu/hr/sq.ft of floor area. That will get you in the ballpark, which is all you really need. Furnaces are manufactured in fairly coarse increments, so as long as you're close you'll be fine. This estimate is only intended to give you an idea of if you need a 10K, 20K or 30K btu/hour furnace, not to get down to the exact btu capacity.

Vented or Unvented

The technology exists to use an unvented furnace safely. The advantage of an unvented furnace is that the purchase & installation will be a lot less expensive, and the efficiency is normally 99.9% while vented furnaces are usually no better than 80% efficient.

You need to follow a few rules for unvented furnaces.

• Have at least 50 cubic feet for each 1000 btu/hour of maximum furnace heating capacity.
• Buy a furnace with an Oxygen Depletion Sensor (ODS), so that the furnace will shutoff if the oxygen in the room drops below 18%.
• Use a carbon monoxide detector/alarm (look in the smoke detector section at Walmart).

Blue Flame or Radiant

The two most common types of propane furnaces are blue flame and radiant. Radiant furnaces are equipped with a ceramic plate that glows cherry red, which projects heat out the front of the furnace. Radiant furnaces are said to make the area around the furnace more comfortable.

Blue flame heaters have no ceramic plate, only a burner with the characteristic blue propane flames. Heat rolls upwards out of the furnace. The advantage of the blue flame furnace is that it's less expensive than a radiant furnace.

The efficiencies of radiant and blue flame furnaces are about the same.

Sources

I've had good luck at eBay for furnaces of all types. If you need the furnace in a hurry, you don't have a lot of money to spend, and you can't spend a lot of time installing the furnace, your best bet will be with an unvented blue flame furnace. Those are available with ODS for under $150 (delivered) at eBay. Here is the 20,000 btu/hour model I use.

http://cgi.ebay.com/COMFORT-GLOW-20K...mZ330281231785

I've never had any trouble with mine, and the thermostat keeps my cabin comfortable. Here an image of my furnace, showing the ceramic tile job I did around that area of the cabin.



If you need a bigger furnace they make similar ventless furnaces up to 30K btu/hour, or you could even consider multiple wall furnaces.

[mnn2501]

Get a ceramic space heater, its cool to the touch yet pumps out amazing amounts of heat for its size and cost.

here's one example
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...ctId=100599260

[chewie]

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...3+90401+500182
i have just gotten this one, and its great IF you're not moving around alot--so while i'm sitting and working at my desk, its super. i tried one of those that are oil filled radiator looking things and unless you are heating a small room, it took forever to feel any difference. my DD now uses it in her room which is small (i keep our house turned down, and she has a cocketeil) and it does make her room much warmer, but she must keep the door closed.

nevada....the heater you're using looks great, do you have to run lines from an outside tank for it? where is the fuel source? thanks

[DavidUnderwood]

Kero is about 4 and a half a gallon here,
and rising. Propane seems to be a better
deal. What is happening with kerosene,
anyhow? Some local stores no longer have it.

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by DavidUnderwood

Kero is about 4 and a half a gallon here,
and rising. Propane seems to be a better
deal. What is happening with kerosene,
anyhow? Some local stores no longer have it.

I get my kerosene from a local petroleum supplier. They have a standard gasoline-style pump for it. Presumably they buy it in large quantities, since the price at that place was constant all last winter at $4.07. I forgot to look on the pump this fall, but I'll take a look next time I get it. I pump it into 5 gallon blue plastic containers that are made for kerosene (Walmart carries them).

I see kerosene for sale at home depot in 1 & 5 gallon cans. They get about $10 for 1 gallon and about $35 for 5 gallons. Ouch!

[stef]

Originally Posted by calliemoonbeam

Last winter, I tried five different space heaters (including the ones that look like a cast iron stove) and ended up taking them all back until I came across the one I have now. It's not pretty, lol, but it does a great job. It has two settings, 750 and 1500 watts. If you have a really old house you might have trouble with the highest wattage, but I'm in a 30-year-old mobile home running it on a 15-amp outlet with no problem.

I heated a 14 x 20 room, plus a 6 x 8 bathroom and a 12-foot long hall with just one of these as the only heat source, and it kept it plenty warm and only raised the bill by about $10 a month. They sell for $15 at Walmart. HTH.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=7768641

P.S. I have put it up on the bathroom vanity without it overheating the area and with no problems, so maybe you could find a way to put it up out of the baby's reach somewhere. You should not set it directly on carpet though.

Looks like Walmart is not sellilng the Holmes Whisperquiet I liked anymore.
Will have to check this one out.

BTW: whenever I buy a heater, I ask if they will plug it in so that I can see how quiet/loud it is and how well the blower works. Saves a return trip if I don't like it at home.
Stef

[calliemoonbeam]

This one is a little noisy, but after a little while I got used to it and don't even notice it any more...and I was tired of making trips to return heaters that didn't heat, lol.

[Jerngen]

For electric heaters, we like the oil filled radiator styles. Despite living way up here, we don't have heat up on the second floor. We have one of these in each bedroom. We keep them on low at 1.5 (2 on really cold nights) out of a possible 10 on the dial.
Keeps all of us comfortable and allows us to turn back the dial on the main floor furnace at night.
When the kids were at the crawling stage I just put an eye hook into the wall, ran a thin cable through the radiator part and connected it to the eyehook (in case they tipped it). Never had a problem.

[tnokie]

I want to heat a small 10x10 shed for my avairy. Will the keresone heaters put off fumes that would harm the birds. I am using an electric baseboard heater now but need a backup in case the power goes off. Any recomendations?

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by tnokie

I want to heat a small 10x10 shed for my avairy. Will the keresone heaters put off fumes that would harm the birds. I am using an electric baseboard heater now but need a backup in case the power goes off. Any recomendations?

I wouldn't try an unvented kerosene or propane heater for birds, particularly in a 10x10 enclosure. Well, not unless you're trying to exterminate the birds anyway.