ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Space Heaters

How many calls do you get asking "When I plug 2 space heaters in it keeps tripping the breaker? I moved one across the room to a different outlet, but it still tripping."

It is good work adding circuits and makes me sound really smart expaining the lack of capacity for 3000 watts worth of heat on a 1800 watt circuit.

I get tons of calls for tripped circuits or no power on part of the room. Spave heater burns up the stab in the back connection. Or the laser printer and space heater combo. The man at the store told them they would save money with these high efficiancy heaters. I've had a customer turn off his oil furnace and run space heaters instead "Cause they are really good and put out alot of heat and they are only 110v" After explanning it to him for 2 weeks, he finally turned on his furnace. He had a $500. electric bill. His oil tank only cost half that to fill.

Ob

Oh, what a tangled web we weave ... when we deny reality! Especially at the design stage. Or when we make decisions with our hearts, rather than our heads.

OK, strictly speaking, HVAC design is not our trade. Still, bad HVAC decisions have an impact we get to deal with.

Probably the most extreme example is my current place of employment. Built as fast and cheap as possible, there are 5ftx60ft openings in the outside walls to move the product (pipes) when a 2ftx2ft hole could have been sufficient with some proper planning. So, our 'indoor' climate closely matches the outdoors, and we share the shop floor with all manner of wildlife.

Alas, we are brought in way too late to prevent these problems from arising. A simple task becomes a major project- all because architects design 'to code,' the 'customer' is NOT the final user, and a President said 'wear a sweater.'

I also have nothing but contempt for those who claim their 1500W quartz heater somehow makes more heat than any other 1500W heater- and pity for those whose 'education' lets them believe it!

It really irks me when people use zipcord extension cords for 'em. I had those cord connectors burn up when only connecting a couple of strings of lights. What's wrong with 12/3 sjo and hbl5366c and hbl5369c?