Electric Radiant

Troy_3

Who is the best? Where do you buy it? What makes them the best? Why are they different? Do you go after the electric customer or recommend elec.? I feel like I may be missing a market or opportunity.

Glenn Sossin_2

Cost too much to run

Unless you live next the St Lawerence River, or along the Colorado river in Utah, the cost of electricity is very expensive relative to the heat energy it contains. 1KW is = 3,412 btu's . Depending on the structure of your utility bill you may be paying around $.25 to $.35 per KWh or more.

To show the comparision, lets say a gallon of oil is $2.50. Each gallon of oil is approx. 140,000 btu's. That works out to 56,000 btu's for the dollar.

On the electric side, lets say 1KWh costs $ .25 . That works out to 13,652 btu's for the dollar. You can see you get approximately 4 times as much raw heat energy with oil for your fuel dollar.

Then you would apply system efficiencies. Lets say the electic is 99.% efficient, and the the oil is 82% efficient. We would still have approximately 46,000 btu's of useable heat with oil against the approx, 13,500 btu's from electric for each dollar spent on fuel.

If we ran these same numbers for gas, you would get a similar result. Electricity, when converted to heat energy, will typically cost 4-5 times as much as gas or oil.

Thats why you don't see alot of electric heat let alone electric radiant. There are some nice systems out there, primarily for small areas that work on low voltage but in general, electricity is too costly a fuel to be considered as a primary heat source.

hot_rod

For small areas and retrofits

electric mat or cable has a place. Watts Radiant now has mats and WarmWire. DeltaTherm is another brand with a long running excellent reputation.

hot rod

ALH_4

Electric

IMO, the best way to install electric radiant is to go hydronic with an electric heater. I like the Laing EPR heaters for small areas. Contact info is on Laing's website.

Glenn Sossin_2

Heater good idea

Agree with you Andrew - a good idea especially when the exiting house has a forced air system but .. has 2 issues - warranty ?? (mis application of product) and you still have the same btu cost factors.
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If you can get enough heat from it (KW x 3413) = BTU'S, I agree with Andrew and would opt for the heater before laying wires.

ALH_4

Heaters

I agree, Glenn. It costs more money up front and saves nothing in fuel, but what I like about it is that an alternate heat source can be used in the future as electricity becomes more expensive than it already is.

The Laing heaters are designed specifically for this type of application. Their EPR heater on a cart for emergency heating would be a very handy tool for service on those cold nights when the boiler is truly dead, or as temporary heat during construction to avoid plugging the boiler with dust.