Friday, October 17, 2008

Anyone Else Use An EdenPURE?


It's late enough in the year now that the early morning hours here in Missouri are very chilly. Our furnace kicked on for the first time yesterday and I have to say, I'm not ready to have the furnace on yet.

A few years ago, my father-in-law bought three (or maybe four) of these EdenPURE space heaters and asked us to take one and use it for the winter to see what we thought of it. I'm not sure, but I think his intent was to give, or lend, one to each of his children, but as far as I know, we are the only ones who took one.

I have to say, we were skeptical in the beginning, but by the end of the winter we were sold on it. As I explained to a friend earlier, it's one of those seemingly gimmicky products that really does what the manufacturer claims it will do. It heats cleanly, evenly and safely. A room heated with an EdenPURE feels more comfortable than a room heated to the same temperature using traditional gas or electric heat. Depending on the layout of your house, one EdenPURE can heat up to 1000 square feet of space.

I don't understand all of the science that makes this type of heater (quartz infrared) work, but if you're interested, the information is on their website.

We know we realize a savings, but because our house is heated with natural gas, it's difficult for us to determine exactly what our savings are, or how the EdenPURE compares to other electric space heaters or furnaces. My FIL's house is all electric, and he said they realized substantial savings using the EdenPURE.

We've been "borrowing" ours from FIL for three or four years. We like it well enough that we are considering buying another one and using the two as our primary heating method.

This isn't a sponsored post in any way. I'm just curious if anyone else has had good experiences with EdenPURE or any other quartz infrared space heaters. Leave a comment if you have an opinion, good or bad.

11 comments:

Tug said...

I'm real leary of space heaters - you hear a lot of them start fires...are those the olden days?

Anonymous said...

Don't know about the heater, but I know a little about the price of electricity vs. the price of natural gas.

There's a formula to determine which is more economical, but you need the following info: what is the cost per kilowatt house for electricity where you live? (You can find it on your bill, or you can call your power company). Second, what is the cost per million BTUs of natural gas where you live?

IN ALMOST ALL CASES, ESPECIALLY IN MISSOURI, it will cost you TWICE as much to run an electric space heater that it will cost you to run the furnace for the same period of time.

BTW, Gentle Ben worked in the oil industry for many years, and will glad to help you compare apples to apples...

I WOULD NOT advise you to but another electric space heater...based on figures we calculated when we lived in Springfield.

Anonymous said...

Sorry..that's price per kilowatt HOUR

Annie Jones said...

Tug: The quartz infrared heaters don't get hot enough to start a fire. Our cats sleep on top of them a lot of the time; they are warm to the touch, but not hot.

Granny: That is you isn't it? :)

I found a website with a chart that I can use to compare natural gas to electric, and yes, it says that gas is more efficient for heating.

But...I'm confused by the comparisons. Seems to me that comparing a (supposedly more efficient) QI heater to a traditional electric space heater would be comparing apples-to-apples.

Comparing a QI heater to a traditional electric-powered furnace, heat pump or whole-house baseboard system would be like comparing apples to, say, crabapples.

Then trying to compare a QI heater to a gas furnace would be comparing apples-to-oranges.

So yes, I would definitely be glad to have Gentle Ben's help in comparing. Our current gas price is 1.045/ccf and our average current electric price is .0946/kWh. The BTU rating of the EdenPURE is 5000 BTU, and it uses 1500 watts at it's highest setting.

To be honest, I'd be happy if it came out costing the same or even a penny or two more. Why? Because it's such a nicer feeling heat. It's a constant heat (not just warm only when the furnace fan is blowing), it's constant throughout the space being heated (top to bottom and side to side), and the air gets less dry, resulting in less static and fewer sinus problems.

Please let us know what GB thinks after running the numbers.

Thanks!

Granny said...

GB will do the math, but at first glance, it appears that it's WAY cheaper to run gas than electricity where you live.

What we're comparing is the UNIT COST OF ONE BTU OF GAS AS COMPARED TO THE UNIT COST OF ONE KILOWATT HOUR OF ELECTRICITY. Strictly apples to apples...You're in good company, though: most folks VERY mistakenly think electricity is cheaper than gas.



We'll run the math and get back to you. Friday afternoons are not a good time for math in this household :-)) We're about to head out for a movie...on the lawn.

Remember, though, if you're comfortable, that's a big plus.

BUT also remember that if you are comfortable in ONE room and the rest of the house "goes cold" you'll spend a LOT bringing the house up to a reasonable heat in the morning.

Hugs!

Lisa B. said...

We heat with propane. My hubby was wanting to buy some of those heaters. We already use 3 or 4 other space heaters to supplement the proprane. There was a couple months last winter our elec bill was about $40 higher, but it helped stretch our proprane out, which was selling for an ungodly amount at the time.

I wouldnt know how to figure out the propane vs elec vs these heaters, cause the heaters are supposed to be so much more effecient than space heaters and your furnace.

Anonymous said...

The EdenPure machines are scams. Too many malfunctions:

http://digg.com/health/DO_NOT_BUY_EdenPure_Space_Heaters_Period_Tell_Everyone

Annie Jones said...

Lisa: I didn't get email notification that you'd made a comment, so I'm a little late in responding. I haven't found out anything for certain, but I did talk to a physics professor from Penn State who said that in addition to just comparing natural gas vs. electricity costs, I would need to consider the efficiency of the EdenPURE vs. our gas furnace. He said that electric appliances will maintain their efficiency while gas ones will become less efficient with age. I'm not sure how old our furnace is, but I imagine it is at least 10 years old. It's really a guessing game at this point as to which is more efficient, but as gay said above, being comfortable counts for something, too.

Anonymous: I assure you that I'm not getting paid to post about this heater (or anything else I write about on this blog). The fact that I like the heater and think it performs exactly the way it was advertised does not mean I'm being paid to say so. We have used our EdenPURE for 2-3 years now and have not had any problems with it. While we did not purchase ours, my FIL has purchased three of them (we use one, he uses one and his wife's granddaughter uses one). We've all had great success with them.

I appreciate your differing opinion, but I will continue to use ours and to recommend EdenPURE (or other similar heaters) to others.

Anonymous said...

Good Morning, my name is Garrison Roberts. My wife and I just bought our first home 5 months ago…moving’ up and finally realizing the American Dream. So shortly thereafter we found that it could be very costly during the impending winter to pay the higher propane costs that heating a 1800 sq ft home is…we needed a better solution. So we looked around and found some friends using 2 CZ Infrared 1500P heaters to supplement their home heat. It seemed to do an excellent job in the main areas of their home. So I took the leap of faith and invested in 3 units...they do not disappoint whatsoever. We run our thermostat at a constant 55 F and supplement up to 75 degrees F in our living room, one in our kitchen/dining area, and one in our finished basement that is converted into an office/study. The units perform perfectly and we set them to delay start about 45 minutes prior to coming home for an even, comfortable heat. I run our 3 units for about 12 hours per day for the cost of $1.58 per day or less than $50.00 per month in electrical cost per unit. It has saved us hundreds in potential propane costs this heating season already. I am so glad that I took the leap of faith and decided to choose Infrared heat to keep my new home comfy and warm. Thank you, CZ Infrared.

Anonymous said...

In response to Mr. Roberts, the only issue I can see with your assertions is that I fail to see how a space heater can effectively heat an area of this magnitude comfortably or efficiently. Please explain to me how this unit can be as efficient as a standard central heat system. Thank you for your time.

EdenPure said...

I've always had great luck with space heaters lowering the cost of heating the whole house. Since it is just me, I think it silly to try and keep a whole house warm when I spend the majority of my time in one or two rooms.