Every winter ads for miracle infrared heaters appear on TV and in national newspapers. The promises they make sound almost too good to be true which makes many people wonder whether infrared heaters are a scam. Whether they are a scam or not depends on the price you pay but I don’t believe that most infrared heaters are worth it. After reading these infrared heater reviews you can decide for yourself if infrared heaters are a scam.
Eden Heater Scam
It is true that these heaters are highly efficient. This is because all electrical heaters are approximately 100% efficient. Any 1500 watt heater will produce roughly 5100 btus. If you had fifteen 100 watt bulbs they would also put out about 5100 btus. Many of these infrared heaters use heating elements that are similar to light bulbs. The eden heaters do not use new technology. You can get a $20 heater that will put out as many btus as these miracle infrared heaters. The ads are telling the truth when they brag about the efficiency of infrared heaters,but they are being misleading.
Do Infrared Heaters Save Money?
Since electric heat is generally 3-5 times as expensive as other forms of heat it is unlikely they will save you money on your heating bill. One possible way they could save you money is if you turned your furnace down and used a heater to keep the area you are in at a comfortable temperature. This is called zone heating. For every degree that you lower your home thermostat in the winter, you’ll save about 3 percent on heating costs. Most people will not turn down their thermostat enough to save anywhere near the 50% some ads claim. You can use zone heating with any portable electric heater. Consumer Reports states that infrared heating claims don’t add up. There is no need to spend several hundred dollars on a heater to do this. Again the ads are misleading.
Amish Heater Scam
Another claim ads for these miracle heaters often make is that they don’t dry the air or reduce oxygen like other heaters. I couldn’t find any reliable information on whether infrared heaters burn oxygen or not so that claim may be true but it would be true of other portable electric heaters using similar technology as well. The claim that they do not reduce the humidity in a room was found not to be true.
It is also a fact of physics that heat rises no matter how the heat is produced. The claims that the heaters can heat 1000 square feet is also highly dubious. Since the heaters can’t produce any more than about 5100 btus of heat they can’t heat a larger space than other portable electric heaters. My experience is that a portable electric heaters producing 5100 btus isn’t nearly enough to heat 1000 square feet. Other infrared heaters make a more believable claim that they can heat up to 350 square feet.
According to an article in the Washington Post the Amish heaters are actually made in China. A Consumer Reports article reveals that, David Baker, Heat Surge vice president, recently told The New York Times, “If someone would come to me and say, ‘I need a heater and I want to spend as little as possible,’ I would say go to a local big-box store and buy one for $29.99. Our heater represents a fireplace rather than just some space heater.” Some of these heaters may be an okay value if you find them to be attractive pieces of furniture but as just heaters they are a terrible deal.
Look at some of the heaters available on Amazon. You can buy a ceramic heater
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