Awl --

Didja catch the EdenPure infomercial? goodgawd....

I always knew Bob Vila was an effing asshole -- he could barely muster good
manners on his bull**** home show.
But I didn't know he was a dishonest whore. I knew he shilled for Sears for
a while, but this is real street-corner prostitution, imo.

What they artfully dodge in this $30 heater in $300-$400 disguise is the
simple concept of zoning. Vila actually addresses this quite correctly at
about 22 minutes into the infomercial, but it's all of 1 minute out of 30
minutes of bull****.

And indeed, you can save a bundle with electric heat, if you have a big
house with poor zoning.

I've found a very good improvement over point-style space heaters is 220/240
V baseboard heater elements operated at 120 V with a couple of pyooter-style
muffin fans. I just prop iup the bare aluminum fin ditty on some bricks.
This delivers a nice gentle heat over 8 ft of linear length.

If it's really cold, by using two wall switches in a box (a regular on/off
and a 3-way), you can operate one of these baseboards at 120 AND 240 V.
240 V really pumps out big-time heat, and makes the electic meter spin.

At 120 V, it puts out about 500-600 W, while at 240 V, it puts out 4X this,
or 2000-2400 Watts -- yet is easier on the wiring, cuz it only draws 10 amps
at 240V
..
I use these to heat the shop, a couple of rooms. Or Costco radiants, which
are themselves overpriced, but not by a factor of 10 -- about $50.

I got a bunch of these baseboard elements for pennies on the dollar, but
I'll bet these elements are $20-50, depending on length.

You can buy encased units for under $100, altho these usually operate only
at 120V, for the typical 1,000 - 1,500 watts..

So once again infomercials deliver a partial truth to sell a product at 10X
it's inherent value.
Ditto this Amish furniture-style heater.

Ceiling fans are as important in the winter as they are in the summer --
just reverse the rotation. Eliminates the temperature differential between
floor and ceiling, which can be more than 10 deg! Really very important.

I fight with the wife all the time with the HSN/QVC crap (essentially
infomercials Variety-style), who solicit products that can "withstand"
markups of 10-20X -- which in %-ages, is a markup of 1,000 to 2,000 %. Your
local hardware store makes 15% on a Bosch power tool.

Hmmmmm...... 15% vs 2,000% -- I wonder where the bargain is??

Pity about Vila -- I heard/read sumpn sumpn about him, that he was the Real
Architectural Deal, a bright guy.
I guess vamping in front of a camera is easier than actually building stuff
from blueprints -- and pays better.
--
EA