Re: Are heat lamps the most efficient heat source?

[Soozeclooze@aol.com]

Radiant heaters are great for the very reason you pointed out – you dont heat everything up. For some reason they’ve never recieved much attention in more main stream circles. People like convection heating (and more these days underfloor) because it heats the whole space. Bare in mind the plumbing and heating world are pretty stuck in their ways. We’ve “always used radiators” (even though they are actually convectors). But you are right, its a lot more efficient. How much did you pay for your heat lamp? I think the other issue with radiant heat is its location, mounting etc – you can end up heating walls they are mounted on lot – which is loss, and you have to stay in a certain proximity to appreciate the heat. They’re much better for things like churches though where there’s so much air in the ceiling to heat up as pure waste. Electrical resistive heating is about as high efficiency as we can get from electricity, which after power station and transmission losses works out at about 20-30%. A lot of people complain about the grid because its more polluting than localised generation from hydrocarbon sources. If your electrics come from a clean source than you’re away… in summary, dont use heat lamps if you want full space heating, its that simple.