I find the hype on this device a little hard to read. The temperature of a room or any space is a function of how fast and far the molecules of air are moving. This takes a fixed amount of energy. The structure of the building, the furniture and other contents of the space all are made up of molecules which vibrate and the faster and further they move, the hotter things will be.
Now electricity moves through a conductor more or less at the speed of light. When it meets resistance it gives off energy. Typically energy is released as sound, various forms of electromagnetic radiation such as light, heat, magnetism often used to perform movement. Heating with electricity is pretty efficient because the electricity can be converted directly into various forms of heat. The electromagnetic radiation can be pretty well at any point along the range from very long waves such as long wave radio, up through short wave, UHF, VHF, Microwaves, the spectrum of infrared into the light range and beyond ultraviolet through x-rays up through gamma and alpha radiation. Water absorbs radio frequency radiation pretty well but it takes some circuitry to produce that sort of energy. Short waves have been used for a very long time for therapeutic heat and in the operating room for cauterizing for example. Shorter radio waves in what is now known as the microwave range are used to efficiently heat water in foods as in cooking although that was not the original purpose, it was discovered in the '40s as a side effect of radar radiation, it was not until the invention of the magnetron tube by, I believe the British that it was possible to reliably produce radio frequency wave lengths in that range. We could heat ourselves fairly efficiently with microwaves if we were willing to sit in the directed beam of a device but the room around us would not warm and there are other risks. This brings us to the light radiation wave lengths. While we cannot see infrared light it is there. You can feel it coming off your stove top when the elements are on. Infrared radiation will pass through optically clear materials such as glass and air, well mostly it will. It doesn't generate heat very much until it is absorbed by another substance. Like light, it can be absorbed and it can be reflected. It is mostly the infrared we feel in the sun, why we can feel heat through a glass window while the window does not get warm. Some of you will be familiar with those radiant heaters which glow red and when the reflector concentrates the light at you, you get warm even if surrounding you is cool. For these to actually heat a room the infrared has to be absorbed by something then that heat transferred to the air by convection or conduction. Air, coming into contact with such a substance will become excited, the molecules will jump about more and it warms up. So, an infrared heater may warm you up or parts of your room up, eventually the entire room by shining on stuff and being absorbed causing the molecules of that stuff, be it you or a table to begin jumping about and causing air in contact with that stuff to get excited too. Inside a heater, the infrared bulbs radiate this low red light which is absorbed by some or other material which in turn gets hot and excites air in it's vicinity warming that air which will be moved or circulated either by convection or with a fan to warm more air and so on. Now here is the thing! You can heat oil inside of a panel directly with an element and as that panel heats up it will radiate some infrared and it will warm up air touching it through conduction which will then rise and heat air it contacts through convection. Either way, 1500 watts of electricity will convert into a fixed amount of heat, some methods will be a little more direct than others but the efficiency now is pretty well defined. You can put ten kilowatts into a brick and the brick will cool over some period of time but that isn't free energy as it cools, you put in a lot of energy to raise the temperature of that mass so it takes some time for that energy to defuse. The same ten kilowatts applied more slowly over a longer period of time will keep you as warm. Now there may be many reasons to purchase one particular type of electric heater but these days the efficiency will be about the same just because that is the limit of physics of it. It is the same reason why no one seems to be able to get more energy out of a gallon of gasoline than chemistry put there regardless of the stories of energy companies buying out the patents of people inventing super carburetors. A heat pump might be more efficient in many circumstances because it extracts heat from outside air even if that air is cooler than inside air and has the other advantage that it can be reversed for cooling in summer months but that requires a little more study. These are just a few thoughts to consider. I think we probably all would like to save energy money. It can leave us vulnerable though to hype. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Geno" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 5:36 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Quartz Infrared Heaters > Ralph, > I would very much to know what you think of this unit. > Though I use my sun-room for solar heat, the days there is no sun for the > sun-room. I am thinking if the reports are good it would be a nice unit to > have. > So, I would be very interested in your model and it's performance. > Geno > Portland, ME. sent 5:36 PM EST > > > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From > Various List Members At The Following Address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ > Visit the new archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.408 / Virus Database: 268.13.4/475 - Release Date: 13/10/2006 > > To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following Address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
