QUESTION:
What are your feelings about infrared quartz heaters? Which brands have you tested? I have one and it seems to provide all the energy representations made. Is it true that this technology was developed for the space station and utilized in the space shuttles?
BILL
ANSWER:
I have never tested any of the electrical heaters or quartz heaters and can’t comment on any specific brand. But wow, there seems to be a lot of marketing for electrical space heaters these days. I am an engineer who studied some of that thermodynamics and heat transfer stuff in college. If the claims are too good to be true, they are not true.
The fact is, you can’t create or destroy energy; you can just change it from one form to another. Electricity has just so many BTUs per kilowatt hour. You can convert electricity to heat with a cheap electrical resistance heater, a light bulb, or an electrical burner on the stove with the same result and always the same amount of energy.
Because we are all trying to save energy and money, all the marketing for the new space age or high tech electrical heaters sounds great; and we want it to work. But it can’t defy the laws of physics. Any type electrical heater will provide the same amount of energy for the amount of electricity used.
MR. FIX-IT