Portable heater for home use... updated

CharlieB

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

Many many moons ago we lived in a small house with a very high ceiling and a single gas wall heater, you had to really have that thing cranked to get anywhere near warm the place stratified so bad.

I blocked up so to 'tilt' a window fan to circ the air and INSTANTLY had to turn down the stat.

Even a couple of the small fans on the stilted stands well placed to circ air from the high ceiling could make a very noticable difference in comfort levels with the added benefit of lowering heating expense.
 

foodfisher

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

^^X2, Aim a low sitting fan at the ceiling to raise the colder air and push the heated air around.
 

Tim Frank

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

^^^^ x 3. Or even a pedestal fan.
 

southkogs

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

While that is funny right there, it's also just wrong! :) hahaha
In this part of the world they still use those crazy "in the wall" electric heaters. Those babies will grill you on contact!
 

TilliamWe

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

Well, I got an oil filled type and it gives off nice heat. Definately helps to have a fan blowing across it. However...

It is still too hot to the touch. You guys that have 'em must have leather for skin, cause I can only touch it for about 3 seconds, then it's uncomfortable. Way too much for a two year old.

So I am going to try a model that has a fan, and is listed as being best for an active house. I'll keep you posted.
 
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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

Well, I got an oil filled type and it gives off nice heat. Definately helps to have a fan blowing across it. However...

It is still too hot to the touch. You guys that have 'em must have leather for skin, cause I can only touch it for about 3 seconds, then it's uncomfortable. Way too much for a two year old.
So I am going to try a model that has a fan, and is listed as being best for an active house. I'll keep you posted.

What heat setting did you have it on -1500w? When I used them I found that the lower setting (some are 600w & some are 750w) was all that was needed to warm a room.
 

bigdee

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

Well, I got an oil filled type and it gives off nice heat. Definately helps to have a fan blowing across it. However...

It is still too hot to the touch. You guys that have 'em must have leather for skin, cause I can only touch it for about 3 seconds, then it's uncomfortable. Way too much for a two year old. .

Yes uncomfortable but not hot enough to cause an immediate burn....children learn fast!!!
 

colbyt

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

Please don't be offended. I surely do not mean it that way. Protecting our children is a parent's duty. Sheltering them is a grave mistake. Hot enough to sting is good. Hot enough to burn is not.

My son learned hot, and never forgot it, when he grabbed the 6" pipe I was using a muffler on a really old rototiller. He had been told no and hot several times before he grabbed. A quick run to the kitchen for ice and Mama's arms kept it to a 1st degree misery. Hot was added to his 3 year old vocabulary and he never forgot. His attention span to the word no improved for a short time.
 

TilliamWe

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Re: Portable heater for home use

Re: Portable heater for home use

Guys, on low, it's not enough to heat my living room. On anything above low, it's hot enough to burn, not sting.
It will be used after my 2 year old goes to bed at night, only.
Colby, your comment is ludicrous. If you think not wanting my son to have 2nd degree burns is sheltering, then I can imagine that Child Protective Services knows your address by heart?! No need for you to comment any more on the safety of my children. None.
 

MrBigStuff

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

Colby, I agree with your distinction between protecting and sheltering. I have a 22 month old. It's really easy to overprotect. My Dad used to tell us he could offer his experience but the only true way to learn is to make some of the same mistakes. Painful as that is for the parents.

An old saying; the little hurts early on help protect us from the big hurts later on.

I have the oil filled heaters. I took the casters off and mounted them up off the floor using angle brackets.

Still, we have a wood stove we like to use when it gets really cold. I bought some of those tri-fold fireplace screens and affixed them to the inside of the railings surrounding the stove. He can't reach in through them. When the stove was warm enough to be uncomfortable, I taught him HOT and not to touch. But like everything you still need to be diligent...

He's a better climber now so I may put the oil heaters back on the floor and use more of the screens to surround and enclose them. He's smart enough now to know not to touch them but not wise enough to resist temptation on occasion ;)
 

Tim Frank

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

Colby, I agree with your distinction between protecting and sheltering. I have a 22 month old. It's really easy to overprotect.

Really easy to overprotect a 22 month old? :eek:

When the stove was warm enough to be uncomfortable, I taught him HOT and not to touch. But like everything you still need to be diligent...
That's being diligent? Wow....just wow.:confused:
Don't want to know how you teach seat-belt use or not to play in traffic....or "sharp...don't touch!" (guess you could dull it on a rock so it's "just sharp enough to be uncomfortable".:facepalm:

I'm 100% with the OP.
 

roscoe

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

Still trying to figure out what four square construction is.
Googling it only returns names of companies named "Four Square."


Don't want to install a door at the bottom of the stairs? then try a thermal curtain.
Or an afghan, or quilt. Anything to stop the heat from rising.
Just hang it from a $5 curtain rod.

Recently had a furnace failure, and hanging a thick decorative throw blanket, over the doorway, locked the heat in the room and kept it 15* warmer. A cheap little $20 forced air heater from Walmart, set on low, was enough to heat 200 sq ft. Cool to the touch too.

Air circulation is key, as has been pointed out. Even a small 6" table top fan aimed along a wall, will push the heat around.


Definitely block off some of the vents upstairs. Easy enough to do with a piece of cardboard, a piece of packing foam, or the old bachelor pad remedy -- some dirty laundry.
 

TilliamWe

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

Roscoe, "foursquare" commonly means the house is basically square with 4 rooms per level. In my house's case, other than the pocket doors between the living room and dining room, the only division in the downstairs is the wall between the kitchen and dining room. The way the staircase is built, the only place to install a door would be at the top of it.
Some people might say my staircase is dangerous, as you could fall from the landing to the floor 5 feet below, as my wife almost has. But that is why we don't let our 2 year old walk down the stairs without us. Our 7 year old knows to hold the rail, mounted to the wall, away from the precarious drop!
 

roscoe

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

Ok, thanks for the explanation.

And yes, door or curtain at the top of the steps is probably not a good idea.
 

Tim Frank

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

If some of the duct runs to the 2nd floor are missing internal dampers, it is not very difficult to retrofit them,in a couple of the duct runs.
 

southkogs

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

There's also THIS GIZMO. It's getting decent reviews, and can mount on the wall getting it away from little hands.
 

MrBigStuff

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

I knew there would be at least one bonehead weighing in on my post in the way Tim did. Why does there always have to be some know-it-all who thinks they should dictate how everyone should raise their kids? They ASSume all kids/people are the same and that age dictates everything. News for you Tim, all kids are different and progress at different rates.

Just so you know, while my boy is only 22 months old, he; knows his ABCs, can count to 10, knows all the basic animals and their sounds, can run and kick a ball better than some 4 year olds, hits T-ball, can start and run a gas powered RC car (put gas in, attach glow plug battery, pull start it and control it with the radio) as just some examples. He appears to have a leg up on you.

We have never pushed him but do let him progress at his own rate. We EDUCATE him as best possible so he can decide on his own if it makes sense or not. Obviously, as I stated before, we constantly supervise and protect him from danger as best we can. But we also realize he can and will get into trouble occassionally because no one can be 100% diligent. So we teach him about things that can hurt him. How would you EXPLAIN to a 2 year old what hot means Tim? They don't understand things they have no experience in. You might as well try to teach him what money is, he has no basis for understanding. So when he feels something that does not burn him but he doesn't want to keep his hand on he can relate to what hot means. Now, when I say HOT!, he knows not to touch it. He has already told Dad that something might be hot and be careful so I know he now understands. And this may save him from pulling a hot kettle off the stove or grab a hot exhaust pipe someday that will result in severe consequences. But you seem to know best...

BTW- we taught him as soon as he could crawl (that lasted ONE WEEK, he was walking around after that at about 7 months) how to handle the stairs. He's been going up and down the stairs for well over a year now upright taking a step up/dn with each step forward. We still have gates but he knows how to open them. We supervise him most of the time but he is so good at it, it really is not necessary. Rather then protecting/sheltering him from the stairs, we decided early on it would be better to TEACH him how to go up/down safely. He has a good sense of self, knows he can accomplish things and takes great pride in those accomplishments.

BTW2- funny thing, we had people talking about how we were raising a "bubble boy" during his first year. They had the opposite extreme as you Tim, they felt we were being over protective.
 

TilliamWe

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Re: Portable heater for home use... updated

Glad your 22 month old is a prodigy MrBigStuff, but mine is not. So what you think is working for you, won't work for me. And it won't for most normal people. BTW, my 7 year old could do almost all those things when he was 22 months old, too. But running around the house, playing, and pushing cars around still leads to toddlers bumping into things. Whether they know it's hot or not.
 
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