Efficiency
Although oil heaters are more expensive to run and provide far less spatial heating than gas heaters, they are still commonly used in bedrooms and other small-to-medium-sized enclosed areas. This is because gas heaters, especially when unflued, are not suitable for bedroom use - gas heaters cannot be used in confined spaces due to the reduced oxygen, and the emissions produced. This leaves electrically powered heaters, such as oil heaters and fan heaters, as the only alternative.
Several efficiencies can be measured in regards to heaters, such as the efficiency of heating a room with a given amount of power, and the efficiency of the electrical generator which powers the heater and power loss from transporting the electricity over power lines. Measures may also consider how well a heater keeps the temperature of a space above a certain point. Such a measure would find inefficiencies in heating an already warm room. Many heaters (the majority of available models) are equipped with a thermostat to prevent this inefficient heating, which in turn reduces running costs. This feature was much more common in oil heaters than in the cheaper fan heaters until recently; thus many older oil heaters will be cheaper and more efficient to run than their contemporary fan heaters that lack the thermostat.
Typical oil heaters range in power consumption/output from 300 to 2400 watts, and their length and number of columns is roughly proportional to their power rating. A 2400 Watt oil heater is usually approximately 1 metre (3.3 feet) in length.
Read more about this topic: Oil Heater
Famous quotes containing the word efficiency:
“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
—Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)
“Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and the same in her efficiency and power of action; that is, nature’s laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature’s universal laws and rules.”
—Baruch (Benedict)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)