A blog all about choosing the right heater for the right application, each post will talk in depth about the pro's and cons of the various heater options available, and hopefully help you to choose the best heater for the application.
Sometimes forced air heaters are not the perfect space heater for the job. In a wide open area heating the air and pushing that air around is simply a good way of losing heat and wasting fuel.
Sometimes you need some heat in an area, but because of the process being warmed, you don't want dust being kicked up by the fans of diesel space heaters.
In these situations a good alternative portable space heater is the Infra Red Diesel Radiant Heaters. These have a burner like the diesel blow heater, but instead of the heat being blown by a fan it is focused on a large steel dish that acts as a hot plate. It absorbs the heat, glows red - then heats the area that it is pointed at.
Unlike a standard diesel space heater a Infra Red Diesel Radiant Heater can be used in a completely open environment and they will still work effectively.
Of course like any portable heater the Infra Red Diesel Radiant Heater has it's compromises - in this case it is a direct fired heater, so it cannot be used where flammables are stored or in unventilated areas.
What is a space heater? It's a commonly used term, and a surprisingly searched for term. I suppose the easiest way to define space heaters is a heater which is designed to warm a space up.
The difficulty is in that by space we tend to mean the air within a given area. So for example infra-red heaters - which heat what you point them at probably are not considered space heaters.
Good examples of what you might call a space heater are electric fan heaters which warm the air by passing it over some hot, resistive elements. Then there are the gas space heaters which burn gas in a jet, with a fan behind them - thereby transferring heat into the air as it burns. Of course the gas space heaters are also prone to giving off moisture and fumes and so aren't always the best choice.
Then we are on to the diesel space heaters, the cheapest and most common is the direct diesel space heater which works more or less like the gas version - exccept instead of burning gas it burns diesel. The more sophisticated space heater is what is commonly used as a marquee heater, the indirect diesel space heater . These are more sophisticated and burn in a steel chamber - keeping the fumes, moisture and burning embers out of the area you are trying to heat.
In conclusion, more or less any heater with a fan can be considered a space heater, what you tend not to think of as space heaters are the various forms or radiant heaters that are available, be they gas, diesel or electric powered.
The FF42 is a monster heater. It is ductable, powerful, rugged and efficient.
It is a large machine - and requires a forklift truck realistically to lift it. The power supply is also large - it needs a 63A, 4 pin, 3 phase and earth supply. The latest version does include a power lead instead of an inlet and the power lead is in braided steel yarn, earthed cable for extra safety.
The 2011 onwards model also has phase protection on the motor now, so if a phase on the supply dies - the motor won't burn out.
All in all the FF42 is powerful piece of kit, which is undergoing constant ongoing development. If you need to heat a large area and can't burn a fuel then this definately the heater for you.
As an additional extra the FF42 is available with IP44 splash proofing so it can be used outside.
Sometimes you need a heater for a particular application which is not available off the shelf. Thankfully there are companies around who can produce bespoke heaters or custom heaters.
Sometimes you need a particular item for load-banking, but resistance heaters or electric fan heaters are actually excellent load-banks.
What do you need to do before approaching these companies?
First, you need a good, solid idea of what it is you want to achieve, and you should have a budget in mind - either of these might or might not be realistic but if you go into the discussions with an idea of what you want and how much you want to pay it's a good starting point. If it's for loadbanking - then you might need to consider the ameters and voltmetres want on the device - do you want switchable power consumption? Indicator lights?
Everything will add cost of course - but it will give you a starting point, from which you can lower the spec or increase the budget. Having one offs made will of course be very expensive - but if it's for a production run of over a hundred there should be many small companies who are willing to take on the project.
A custom electric heater or bespoke load bank is always going to be more expensive than a standard model - but sometimes there simply isn't a standard model which will do the job.
In the past heating marquees was a fairly straightforward affair. Most people would simply put a direct fired gas heater into the marquee, or if it was a small one, a couple of electric fan heaters.
The problem is marquees are very poorly insulated and need a lot of heat. Small electric fan heaters cannot provide enough heat except in the smallest tents when the weather is fairly mild.
The difficulty with the direct fired diesel heaters is that they give off a lot of fumes, a lot of moisture and they present something of a fire risk - often invalidating insurance.
Thankfully there is a suitable solution for heating marquees which is both effective and efficient. What I'm referring to is the Indirect Fired Diesel Heater, often called a marquee heater.
These burn the fuel in a stainless steel combustion chamber and then blow air around the combustion chamber - meaning you get clean dry air inside the marquee. The insurers are happy as there is less of a fire risk, the guests will be happy as the humidity won't be through the roof, and they will be able to breath more easily without the massive amounts of carbon dioxide which are pumped into the marquee when direct heaters are working right... Or carbon monoxide if they are working badly.
These heaters are more expensive - but they are more sophisticated machines. The question isn't can you afford to switch to indirect diesel marquee heaters, but can you afford not to?
Sometimes you want to heat a small part of a large open area. When this is the case it probably isn't the most efficient thing to be doing to be heating the air and throwing that warm air over the thing you want to heat.
If you try to use a 3kW fan heater in the centre of a large open warehouse it simply won't work, You really need to look at a more direct form of heater.
One option is to look at a diesel fired infra-red heater, but I'll cover those in another article.
The common and sensible solution is to use an Electric Infra Red Heater. These use halogen quartz bulb elements - which act like a light and heat the object the light shines on, or a ceramic element which do not shine but heat the area they are pointed at directly.
There are other advantages to these heaters - for example they do not stir the air up, there is no air flow out of them, they are fume free and safe.
One thing you do have to pay attention to is the fact they effectively pour cumalitive heat into an object and shouldn't be left unattended as whatever they are heating will eventually get very hot indeed, and possibly melt or combust. They are an excellent choice for a portable heater in the right situation, but like all heaters, care has to be taken that they are used in a safe and sensible way.
When there is no 3 phase electricity on site and you need more than 3kW of heat out of a standard domestic 13A socket there is only one option - to burn a fuel.
Traditionally burning a fuel meant using a direct fired diesel heater or propane heater. These were simple devices which simply squirted the fuel into the barrel and ignited it. The problems with these kinds of portable heaters are:-
Could only be used where no flammables such as card, paper or fuels because of flying embers.
Could only be used where extremely well ventilated -
The fumes would not make it comfortable for people to work in an area.
The fumes have a high moisture content and raise humidity in an area - making these not great for drying.
Luckily there is now a better solution on the market - the Indirect Fired Diesel Heater.
Indirect Diesel Heaters burn the fuel in a stainless steel combustion chamber and then expel the fumes through a chimney. This eliminates the sparks, keeps the fumes out and makes the heater provide clean, dry, warm air.
The barriers to using 3 Phase Electric Fan Heaters are the power available on site, whether 3 phase electric is available on site and whether you have 3 phase sockets installed.
The advantages are huge though. On the 3kW Electric Fan Heater you are limited to only 10,000 BTU from a 13A Socket - and most ring mains may only support four to six of these running at the same time.
If you have a spare 16A 3 Phase socket then you can easily push out 30,000 BTU from one heater! Going up to a 32A socket means you can easily put out up to 22kW or over 70,000 BTU. Unlike fuel burning heaters they are odourless and safe to use in most environments, without the need for excessive ventilation - the only exception being class 1 explosive proof such as petrol stations or similar.
Another key consideration is the running cost. Yes, gas or diesel may seem cheaper - but have you factored in the time cost to collect and return gas bottles, avialability? The time it takes a person to get a new bottle out of the cage, connect it and store the empty bottle safely away?
With diesel heaters the costs can be even higher with regular maintenance needed, and decanting and storing kerosene or diesel can be expensive and time consuming.
The only real circumstances where fuel burning heaters win over 3 phase electric fan heaters is when there is only a 13A powersupply available and you need over 30,000 BTU or 9kW of heat.
To sum up, 3 phase heaters are:-
Cheap to run
Low maintenance
Safe
Reliable
Odour less and fume-free
The best choice of heater when you need a lot of heat and have 3 phase electricity available.
The 3kW Electric Fan Heater is a staple basic heater for almost any application.
There are two types available - the industrial enclosed element type, and the open element type. There are advantages and limitations to both.
Firstly, the enclosed element is safer, electricity passes through a wire inside the element, and is electrically insulated from the outer layer - so a splash of water won't cause a short-circuit.
This sounds great, but while it's safer it means the heater will take longer to warm up.
When using electric fan heaters in a situation where you only have a UK domestic 13A socket available, the most power you can get is a 3kW heater, otherwise the 13A fuse in the plug will blow every time the machine is turned on. This also means you can't run two of these off one 13A extension lead - as the fuse in the lead will blow.
A 3kW Electric Fan heater produces some 10,000 BTU, however they do not put a great deal of temperature rise onto the air passing through them on each pass. It might only be 20 - 50 degrees of temperature rise, depending on the air flow. They really rely on being able to pull the air back in and add a little more heat to it each time.
In a large warehouse, a 3kW Electric Fan Heater sitting alone in the centre of the room pointing at a workers feet will not be effective - an infra-red heater would be a better choice. In a small office or insulated porta-cabin, a 3kW heater is a better choice and will work effectively.
If we're talking about 110v 3kW Heaters then a 32A plug is the required size for safe operation. If you only have a 16A 110v socket then your only option is a 1.5kW 110v Heater.
if you need more than 10,000 BTU you either have to go up to 3 phase heaters, burn a fuel, or add multiple 3kW Electric Fan Heaters. The problem is each 3kW Electric Fan Heater will require 13A of electricity, if the heaters are all on a single 30A ring main, this means powering up 3 heaters at the same time will knock the MCB breaker out.
Well we're coming into the 2011 Heater season. Many people are going to be looking to buy portable heaters soon, and they are going to be asking themselves - which heater?
There are so many different types of portable heater to choose from at the moment, all perfectly effective for the right application - it can be a bit of a minfield choosing the right one.
On this blog, I'm going to look at the various options and types of heater that can be purchased and talk about the pro's and cons and the issues you might have with the various kinds of heater.
We've a nightmare stocking our portable heater shop this season, but thankfully 99% of the models we need are now on their way - in my next post I'll talk about the most common heater purchase - the humble 3kW electric fan heater.
