I have a laundry room in the back of my house that gets cold.....pipe freezing cold. I have used clamp-lamps with floodlight type bulbs, small electric space heaters, and stinky kerosene heaters to keep it above 32 in there. All three types have pluses and minuses. All three scare me when it comes to leaving them on at night. I was wondering about the electric infrared type. Are they safer to use at night, and are they more economical than the old electric coil space heaters that are just glorified toasters?

I am not an electrician, but you may want to look into an oil filled heater. They are close to 100% efficient and pretty safe. We use 3 of them.

Keith

they are save but your bill is going to be high

Wall hung ventless propane heater
If the power goes out, that heat will keep the pipes from freezing

x2 they make em free standing now too if you don't have room to mount one on a wall.

I use them occasionally. I have two very similar to this one:



I have one set up at the end of a long hallway where a cluster of three doors open into two bedrooms and the main bathroom. Back where the heat from the woodstove has trouble reaching on these cold mornings (12 here this AM).

I turned it on when I got up to pee about 4:30 and by the time the wife and granddaughter got up it was toasty warm back there. My wife likes the bathroom to be warm.

They draw some serious wattage on high but are thermostatically controlled and aren't too bad when set to maintain 68-70 degrees. Super-easy to set up too, just plug it in and turn it on. I only use mine on very cold mornings and turn it off before we leave for work/school.

Make sure you keep batteries in your Carbon Monoxide detectors if you use any un-vented combustion heater.
They also put off a good bit of moisture so your windows will fog and freeze.

Any electric heater can be considered 100% efficient on the user end.
Energy is lost through heat, light, and vibration. All of these are ultimately converted to heat.

Infrared and oil filled heaters are nice because they don't get overly hot, but they are not more efficient than any other electric heater. They physically cannot be.

Most of the new LP ventless heater have a co2 shutoff built I and go to a pilot when it reaches the set temp some take a fan for cirulation.

A few house plants will take care of the excess CO2, it's the CO1 you need to be careful with.

I think there might be a E=mc2 in there some where. The only difference might be like a time release pill in that your getting it spread out instead of all at once.

I like those oil filled heaters as well. Another alternative is a baseboard heater, or a fan forced wall mounted heater. Rated at 240 volts. You can adjust the thermostat to give the heat you need, or shut them right off if desired.. Size them based on roughly 10 watts per sq foot. , of floor. at 240 volts they keep the load on your hydro service balanced.. . Ceiling fans and small circulating fan, behind a wood stove can really help even things out. old243

Thanks for all the advice folks. I'm weighing my options.

No mess no fuss . Set temp and it kicks on and off.

Propane It's 18,000 btu and I heat my building 30-30 and 10 ft ceilings.

What about electric wrap pipe heaters? Wind the tape around the pipe and plug it in.