SoundGuy wrote:
Yeah, you're guessing alright. :W Rarely does any so-called electric heater labeled as "1500 watts" ever come close to drawing that much power ... the only way to know is to measure it.
myredracer wrote:
Afraid I have to disagree with a blanket statement like that. I just tested a couple of heaters and one was 1505 watts and the other 1508. If it's not reading close to 1500 watts at exactly 120 volts at it's plug, it's either non-compliant with UL (or CSA) or it's output is not being measured in accordance with UL testing. I'd test a few more but don't any more around the house.
OK, let's play tit for tat then. :W
I just grabbed 3 different electric heaters I have here in the workshop, 2 of which I use regularly in the camper as our primary source of heat, relying on the gas furnace only to augment heat when outside temps really begin to fall. Measurements were taken with a P3 Kill-a-Watt that claims 0.2% accuracy, then I also remeasured with an inexpensive EM100 energy meter purchased at Canadian Tire, results with that meter are shown in brackets. In each case the heater was allowed to stabilize for several minutes and readings taken were whatever the meters said was the maximum on that particular heat setting.
Heater 1 is an ultra quiet Bionaire, is CSA certified, and is stamped 1500 watts -
not even close, measured 537 watts (514) on High, 236 watts (224) on Low.
Heater 2 is a typically noisy Lancaster, is UL certified, and is stamped 1500 watts - measured 1170 watts (1130) on High, 758 watts (728) on Low.
Heater 3 is a very noisy SuperFurnace, is CSA certified, and is stamped 1500 watts - measured 940 watts (893) on High, 660 watts (630) on Low.
As you can see not one of these heaters is drawing anywhere near 1500 watts so I'll repeat - one cannot rely on any label that may be affixed to any given heater to accurately determine how much power it actually draws, you gotta
measure it. :W
