Space Heaters
Hi All, Just got back from a short snowbird trip to Florida. On the way down south, and again on the way back up north, we needed some overnight heat. I know a lot of people use a space heater, b...
Forum Discussion
enblethen wrote:
A standard 1500 watt heater should be no problem! That would be about 12.5 amps at 120 volt.
In theory yes, in reality rarely will any "1500 watt" electric heater actually pull a full 1500 watts @ 120 vac and therefore nowhere near 12.5 amps. I've got several we use for a variety of purposes in both the house and the trailer and only one is even remotely close, drawing no more than 1400 watts on it's highest setting. I happened to measure one of my other "1500 watt" electric heaters just a 1/2 hr ago as I was locating where I most wanted my Kill-a-Watt meter to be located in the camper ... ~ 720 watts on LO, ~ 1150 watts on HI, even though the heater itself is labeled as "1500 watts". 1150 watts is only ~ 9.5 amps @ 120 vac, nowhere near the theoretical draw of 12.5 amps, and it obviously produces less heat energy since there's a direct relationship between electrical energy in (measured in watthours) and heat energy out (measured in BTUs) - 1 watthour = 3.412 141 479 9 Btu When selecting an electric heater for use in a camper I want a ceramic heater with at least 2 heat settings, one with a quiet fan, a tip over shutoff feature, and one that is closest to actually drawing 1500 watts on it's highest setting.
