this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024

19 points (95.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27036 readers

1048 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

What's a good quiet electric heater? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm looking for an electric heater for my office. Ideally it'd be really quiet. The office is well insulated, so it doesn't need to get too hot.

Can you recommend a brand and model?

top 22 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

Not a specific brand but style of electric heater. I prefer the oil filled ones. They make zero noise and safer because they don't have an exposed heating element that can catch things on fire by coming in contact. The one have has a temperature setting and a clock that can be programmed to turn itself on/off at designated times. Cons are they take a while to heat up and are a bit larger. Mine is tall and thin, looks a bit like a boiler radiator. The big hardware chain stores sell them, I'd expect to pay around $100.

Looked it up on home depot website. They have a lot to pick from. Some are cheaper but with less features https://www.homedepot.com/p/NewAir-Portable-400-Watt-Electric-Oil-Filled-Silent-Slim-Fit-Design-Under-Desk-Heater-with-Energy-Efficient-Operation-White-AH-400/205588528

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

This. They’re surprisingly energy efficient, and while they take a bit to heat up, once they get going they really radiate. I have a small one, and it gets me through the coldest days of winter without needing to turn on the built-in heaters in my apartment.

Bonus is that my cat loooves it. He posts up right next to it and is in cozy heaven.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

They are no more efficient than exposed element heaters.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Every electric heater is 100% efficient. In fact heaters are the only things that can be that efficient

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Fun fact: heat pumps are more than 100% efficient. In heaters, 100% is trash.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

My heat pump is 300% efficient roughly meaning that it outputs the same amount of heat as three 1kW heaters but instead of 3kW it only consumes 1kW or energy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

Cool. Heat pumps are better for most use cases.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

That looks great! I like that it doesn't have a fan. Thanks for the link.

[–] otherbarry 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Agreed with the other comment, the sealed oil radiator heaters are near silent (no fan) and have no trouble heating up a small/mid sized room after some time. The newer ones nowadays have a thermostat so you can set the temperature to something specific & have it heat up to that temperature.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

That looks like the best fit. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

If you mostly care about sound, there are some that don't have a fan.

One option is a fanless convection heater, like the oil heater Hikermick recommended. These things just use passive convention to transfer heat, so they don't have moving parts. You might hear a few sounds from the metal as the thing heats up and cools down, or maybe the relay clicking on and off occasionally to regulate the temperature, but not aside from that.

They take a long time to come up to temperature, so they aren't ideal if you regularly go in and out of the room, but they work fine for keeping a place at a more-or-less constant temperature.

Another is a radiant heater. These are basically big infrared spotlights, heat lamps. At least some can make a bit of sound when heating up -- I had one that did this, and another that was fully silent.

These are good at heating up a particular location, whatever they're aimed at, quickly, so they're good if you just want to heat something in the room. You can aim it at yourself, have the heat immediately affect you; I've seen them recommended for things like bathrooms for this reason.

Unlike oil heaters, these will emit some visible light, so they aren't ideal if you want the room to be fully dark (e.g. I don't know if you watch movies in your office or something, but it'll light the room at least somewhat).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I didn't realize there were fanless options. I'll take a look at those.

Infrared spotlights sound like they'd get really hot, but I'll check that out too.

Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The benefit of infrared heaters is that they only heat what they're pointed at where as a normal heater heats the entire room. Depending on the usecase, running an infrared heater may be cheaper.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

That makes a lot of sense.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Candles.

Class up the working environment with a room-warming candelabra.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

We're gonna party like it's 1699!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Verily. Commence the merriment aſ if we were foolſ!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

Heat output of a candle is between 30 and 100 watts. It'll definitely be able to heat a small room if you have enough of them but they also worsen the air quality and cost more money than running an electric heater.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I got a heatdish from Costco for $99 and it works great!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Project Farm tested a bunch of them and used a decibel meter, results at 7:04-7:30

https://youtu.be/hynRbnQ2hIE

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I like empirical testing! Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

I really enjoy the channel, watch them all even when they're comparing things I have no need for whatsoever lol