Electric Space Heater Recommendations?

[FastEddieB]

We're shopping for an electric space heater for our 21BHS. We have a $100 Home Depot gift card, so it would be handy to get it there. And we need it to not overtax our 20A (for now) service. Thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

[Pinstriper]

We have a 1500w unit that takes our 14DBS up 10 degrees in about 15 minutes. That's pretty good, and if we needed more heat we'd just go to the propane furnace. It's small - about the size of a half-gallon of milk.

1500w is pretty much the high water mark for residential space heaters.

I also have a 350w unit that's the size of a beer can for my teardop trailer.

[Diversteve]

We carry these two.
I mounted a new receptacle high on the fridge side of the bathroom wall (GFCI of course). My wife loves this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Lasko-754200-Ceramic-Adjustable-Thermostat/dp/B000TKDQ5C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1509197197&sr=8-3&keywords=electric+space+heater+small

https://www.amazon.com/Handy-Heater-Bathroom-Motorhome-Camper/dp/B01MG892PZ/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509197768&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=intertek+handy+heater

[Pinstriper]

Ya that second is the one what I ave in the td. Works super good in a small enclosed space. I suppose in a larger space having 2 or 3 in various wall outlets would be decently effective.

[FastEddieB]

We just ordered a Vornado "Whole Room" electric heater from Amazon for about $60.

Question - which is more efficient (cheaper): running an electric heater all night or using the propane furnace? We prefer electric, mainly because the furnace is so noisy as it cuts on and off.

[Pinstriper]

Should be a simple calculation. Each appliance should have a BTU/hour rating. Factor that against the price of an hour's runtime and BAM! you have it.

Electricity will win, unless you are running a generator to produce it.

When camping with shore power, we use electric heat as it's "free" - as in already paid for in the fee.

[FastEddieB]

Of course, if it's someone else providing the power, it's a no-brainer.

I should have specified I was thinking of when we were plugged into our own power, like at home or our TN property.

What made me ask was my understanding that heating a home with electricity was inefficient compared to gas heating, and I wondered if that held for our small propane tanks and furnaces.

[DavidM]

We just ordered a Vornado "Whole Room" electric heater from Amazon for about $60.

Question - which is more efficient (cheaper): running an electric heater all night or using the propane furnace? We prefer electric, mainly because the furnace is so noisy as it cuts on and off.

Eddie:

Simple resistance electric heating is usually the most expensive of all common home heating sources, but propane is more if you are buying it in 20 lb tank refills. I pay an exorbitant $30 to refill a 20 lb tank and rough math tells me it costs about twice as much as electricity.

And I like this Caframo resistance heater with blower: https://www.amazon.com/Caframo-Limited-9206CABBX-North-Heater/dp/B004473UK2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509643628&sr=8-1&keywords=caframo+heater&dpID=41oMrTUuSBL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

It has three heating settings: 600 watt, 900 watt and 1,500 watt. The blower is quiet. And the thermostat turns down to a low freeze protection setting.

David

[Merlin]

Of course, if it's someone else providing the power, it's a no-brainer.

I should have specified I was thinking of when we were plugged into our own power, like at home or our TN property.

What made me ask was my understanding that heating a home with electricity was inefficient compared to gas heating, and I wondered if that held for our small propane tanks and furnaces.

A picky little point........electricity at the point of use for resistance heating is essentially 100% efficient; all of the power used is converted to heat (with only small losses in wires and switches). That is not true of propane, which has wildly variable efficiency at point of use in an appliance depending on lots of factors. I think what you are most interested in is relative cost to achieve the same temperature in the camper, as noted by Pinstriper and DavidM. Electricity is so much more convenient (no tanks to refill and far less noise) that it's probably worth it even if it costs more. And, I think you realize from your previous posts that a 1500 watt electric heater is going to use 12.5A of the 20A you have available at your campsite. That may limit your other 120V use.

[FastEddieB]

Thanks!

We do, in fact, turn off the heater when we run the microwave.

So far, have only had the 20A breaker trip once, when Karen forgot to turn off the AC before starting the microwave. It must be right on the edge of 20A draw altogether, since a handful of times one of us has forgotten and it hasn't tripped.

I agree an electric heater is far handier than the furnace and monitoring/schlepping propane tanks.

[Steve Sanders]

We use a 1500 watt ceramic heater with a thermostat control just to get the chill out of the air.

To stay warm at night, we use an electric mattress pad that only draws about 300 watts and a good blanket to hold that heat in the bed.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[FastEddieB]

Since this got bumped...

We did buy the Vornado "Whole Room" model.

Pros:

Whisper quiet.

Well designed, solid and attractive.

Cons:

Slightly anemic, at least compared to the Black & Decker (also rated at 1,500W) we had been carrying back and forth with us.

No "Fan Only" position.

Would ideally have liked the thermostat to have a temp display.


On full bore, it seems to preclude the use of the furnace down to about 30°. Once it gets into the 20's, the trailer eventually cools down enough that the furnace kicks in. Part of this might be poor sealing - we have some visible gaps around the bed and we can feel the cold outside air coming in. Should be helped a bit with weatherstripping, which I bought but have yet to apply.

Anyway, recommended, albeit with the caveats above.

[USCG]

I'm not recommending this one, it just happens that I had one, and one time we went camping and I took it.  It ran fine off my Honda EU2000, and boy, this thing would run you out the house....  It got so hot in the camper we had to open the window, and it was 20' outside.  Needless to say, low setting is fine.  Now this thing has a riding spot in our camper,,  it puts off a nice "glow" too. 
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ChimneyFree-Electric-Metal-Stove-Heater-CFI-470-02/213324353

[djsamuel]

Just to add another option for anyone looking, we got this cheap 1500 Watt ceramic heater at Home Depot.  Using it now and it works great to easily heat our 21BHS.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pelonis-1500-Watt-OPP-Ceramic-Portable-Heater-HC-0179/301706415