Category Archives: Benefits of Electric Heating

About Mor Electric Heating, Benefits of Electric Heating, Garage Heaters, Infrared Heaters, Warehouse Heaters

Case study of Warehouse Expansion and addition of Solaira Alpha Infrared Heaters/Controls

At Mor Electric Heating we have grown our sales/stock of Infrared Heaters, Roof and Gutter Heating Cable, Pipe Heating Cable and Comfort Heaters significantly. We needed to expand our stock shelves, boxing and receiving areas again, which were unheated. It would not be practical to heat the entire warehouse area since it is not insulated and is technically cold storage with an approximately 40 foot inside peak of the roof. So we are focusing on spot heating our working areas/stations. We decided those areas will need to be spot heated.  Depending on where you are standing at the workstations, the apparent temperature is approximately 25-50 degrees warmer than the actual air temperature.

We needed to install more infrared heaters, our first install was during a 2010 expansion of our shipping area when we chose to use four SALPHAH2-30240S (3.0kW 240Volt) because the reflector pattern, long life and 3,000 watts each (12 kW total) is well suited for that 20×20 area and 10-12 foot mounting height.

IMG_2640

We had some challenges with the available mounting options but ended up with a great system for our needs.  We had to hang two of them from the rafters with 25 feet of chains!  We set the height of one of the heaters as low as possible (10-1/2 feet) while still being able to roll our ladder underneath it.

On the other side of the shipping area we were able to mount the heaters on the wall and from shorter chains:

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For our 2015 expansion we installed Solaira Infrared Heaters because of the great success we had in our 2010 expansion and the warehouse employees love the heaters. We went with the Alpha Series and their Smart Variable Control.
We had plenty of 240 volt power available and despite the installation requiring a long run of conduit for the new heaters and controls the electricians quickly had it up and running..
For our new boxing area we used two SALPHAH3-60240B 6kW 240V Heaters:
IMG_2649
To spot heat the end of our long center walkway we used one SALPHAH2-40240S 4kW 240V Silver Heater:
SOLAIRA10070
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And to spot heat each end of our cut to length heating cable spooling area we used two SALPHAH2-40240S 4kW 240V Silver Heaters:

IMG_2639

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The five new heaters are controlled by the Solaira SMaRT30-DV 120/208-240V 30Amp Variable Control:
SOLAIRA10147

IMG_2648

We might just now have one of the single largest electric heat distributor warehouses in the country. Because we are simply spot heating with electric infrared heaters we are highlighting the effectiveness of electric infrared heaters.

This application utilizes the benefits of spot heating in a large warehouse without having to heat the entire warehouse which would be very costly in this region of the country.

About Mor Electric Heating, Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Replacement Parts, Technical Support

Replacement Parts for Electric Heaters (High Temperature Limits, Knobs, Fan Delay Switches, Thermostats, Heating Elements, Fan Blades, Thermal Cutouts, Motors, etc.)

We sell and stock a lot of parts and while we are not in a position to troubleshoot a heater, (that is the job of an electrical contractor) we are happy to help identify a particular part.  We have manuals and parts books where each specific heater has a break-out exploded view drawing with the parts identified.

When purchasing a new heater you may want to consider that there are some brands of electric heaters that are not repairable with parts from the manufacturer. We get calls from customers trying to repair heaters sold at the big box stores and the heaters are not supported with parts.  We stock and can get any available parts from manufacturers such as Marley (Qmark/Berko), King Electric Heating, Markel (TPI Corp.), Dimplex (Electromode), Solaira, Warren Technology, etc. that will repair current heaters or even models as far back as the 1950’s!  Qmark/Marley electric heaters (wall heaters, baseboard heaters, unit heaters, etc.) are completely repairable with over 5,000 replacement parts listed on our website. King Electric Heating has over 500 replacement parts available.

Search our website for your part #: https://morelectricheating.com

We also have some of the parts categorized by manufacturer at: https://morelectricheating.com/products/REPLACEMENT%20PARTS.aspx

Some parts books are available on our website:

Qmark:

https://morelectricheating.com/content.aspx?file=product_pdf_parts/Qmark_Parts_Complete_Links.pdf

King Electric:
https://morelectricheating.com/content.aspx?file=product_pdf_parts/King_Electric_PC_2006_PartsBook_with_links.pdf

Or browse our album of high resolution pictures of some of the biggest sellers in our stock: https://plus.google.com/photos/115109275798116019573/albums/5858273978492863313

Baseboard Heaters, Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Converting to Electric Heat, Cove Heaters

Using Electric Cove & Baseboard heaters for discounted electric utility rates

We get the following question frequently:

“My local electric company told me to look into Baseboard or Cove heaters for additional off-peak electrical usage”

Some Electric Utilities and Co-ops have programs such as off-peak electrical rates, electric heating rate, dual fuel, deferred load, RDC system, etc.

In North Dakota, The Northern Plains Electric Cooperative will give you the “electric heating rate” and will even provide thousands of dollars of financing at a low interest rate for your installation of electric heat as detailed on their website: http://www.nplains.com/Save_Energy_and_Be_Safe/energy_equip/baseboard/index.html

The great thing about this approach is that off-peak rates are seen during the nighttime hours when the need for heat is the greatest because the sun is down and the temperatures are colder. You don’t necessarily have to have an Electric Thermal Storage Heater system to take advantage of off-peak.

We tend to focus most of our stock on the shelf in the Qmark brand of cove heaters and can order many other brands for you. The great thing about cove heaters is that they are mounted very close to the ceiling on the wall and they enable you to place your furniture anywhere, unlike baseboard heaters which would be “blocked” by something like a large couch. Radiant heat energy is directed downward, warming people and objects near the floor.

Qmark Cove Heaters
Dimensions:
Height 4″ x Width 2 7/8″ x Length (varies by Catalog # from 34″ to 132″)

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Converting to Electric Heat, Thermostats

Electric heating with low voltage thermostats and relays

The same low voltage thermostats that are used to control central heating and cooling systems can also be used with electric comfort heating when combined with a relay instead of a line voltage thermostat.

In the low volt setup, the switching of the power on and off (controlling of a line voltage resistive load) is done by an external electromechanical relay instead of the thermostat.

The Aube RC840T Series Electromechanical Relay is one of the options, it has a built-in 24 V transformer, operates silently, and on a call for heat, the relay is immediately activated with no delay. It is wired to the thermostat with common thermostat wire and the relay is wired to the heater with common 12 gauge building wire.

It can be very advantageous to use electric heat relays and low voltage thermostats instead of line voltage thermostats.  Low voltage thermostats offer a vastly greater selection and better availability.  There are even options to control the temperature of every room in your house from any computer or smartphone with thermostats such as Honeywell’s new Prestige thermostat.  Another benefit of low voltage thermostats is that a room that requires more than 5,000 watts is easier to control with one thermostat instead of 2 or more and the room will be more comfortable because the temperature will vary less.

Electrical contractors are familiar with how to install and mount relays and follow local building codes regarding the use of both low and line voltage in your system. Relays can be mounted in a varietry of areas such as inside baseboard heaters, on an accessable junction box or panel in the room or the basement below the rooms being heated.

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Converting to Electric Heat, Zoning

Converting from a Propane furnace to Zoned Electric Heating

A customer gave us data about their savings from converting their entire house to electric comfort heat (every room, controlled to only heat the rooms being used, when they are using them.)  They have an electric dryer, propane water heater, propane range and central air conditioning.  They are a family of 6 with a ranch house in Lower Michigan with 1,375 square feet on the main level.

06/2007-05/2008 bills:
Electric $1,002 @ 12 cents kwh
Propane $1,455 @ $1.92 per Gallon
Total $2,457

06/2008-05/2009 bills:
Electric $990 @ 12 cents kwh
Propane $1,883 @ $2.07 per Gallon
Total $2,873

The electric heat was installed in late October of 2009 at a cost of $780, which was paid for by the savings in the first year:

06/2009-05/2010 bills:
Electric $1,357 @ 12 cents kwh
Propane $703 @ $2.57 per Gallon
Total $2,060

06/2010-05/2011 bills:
Electric $1,808 @ 12 cents kwh
Propane $811 @ $2.00 per Gallon
Total $2,619

The customer estimates that with the old system, the total bills would now be up to $3,100 because the family has grown from 3 to 6 since 2007.  A savings of $500 per year is sustained now. The customer is also considering future advances in wind power, fuel cells and solar power to supply the house with free electricity to power the heaters, etc.

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters

How to save money on your winter heating bill

Keep as many rooms as you can as cold as possible (the true key to saving money is minimizing the heat loss from as many walls, floors, windows and ceilings as possible.) The colder a particular room is, the smaller the amount of heat that is transferred to the outdoors.

Heat loss calculations are amazing.  Heat lost to the outdoors has to be replaced with a furnace (natural gas or propane), heating oil, wood, pellets, electric heaters or other method.  It is amazing how changes in the calculation such as a 1 degree F temperature change inside or outside, # of outside walls, ceilings and windows, etc. So the solution is to reduce the air temperature in your house.  That is tough, but it is the only answer that is highly effective. The biggest way to save money on heating costs is to make as many rooms in the house as cold as possible without the pipes freezing (typically the basement is the only danger area, and you can also use  heat tape which can be as low as 3 watts per foot, which warms 50 feet of pipe with 150 watts and can be insulated.) Wear your winter coat inside the house? If it really bothers you then maybe keep it nearby for those rarely entered rooms but definitely wear a sweater all the time.
People are desperately trying to lower their heating bill by installing electric heaters in the rooms they tend to use the most.  It’s called zoning, and it works very well.  These smart customers see their furnace or oil burner as the enemy and they are doing everything they can to keep it from firing up.  Extra insulation, under door sweeps, closing doors, window film etc. are all helpful as well.  Many of our customers have electric heat (wall heaters, baseboard heaters, ceiling heaters, etc.) installed in every room with a thermostat in every room.  They micro manage the temperature of each room faithfully by making adjustments to each thermostat and with programming of the set-back thermostats.  It takes some work but customers are reporting that they are cutting their heating bill in half or a third and that can close to $2,000 per year in savings for a heating oil or propane customer. The voltage you choose (120 or 240 Volts typically) does not matter. A watt is a watt the world around at any voltage as far as how you’re charged for electricity. (All utility companies charge by how many kilowatt-hours you use.) 
Tips:
  • Turn down your thermostat, especially at night and unoccupied hours – every degree you can decrease your temperature setting will save you 2% to 4% in your heating bill
  • Open your drapes during the biggest sunlight hours and close them at night
  • Caulk around window, doors, and wherever air may leak in or out of the house
  • Insulation in the attic (Many people are installing 24″ of blown in fiberglass with great results)
  • Use Programmable Thermostats which automatically set back the temperature at night.
  • Be careful when bringing in the groceries, etc. A huge amount of heat is lost when you open a door in the winter
Check out some electric comfort heaters here:
and here
Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters

How much does it cost to run an electric heater?

The secret to saving money on heating in the winter is micro managing temperatures and heaters. Be vigilant about lost heat (heat loss from doors opening, bathroom fans, too little insulation, etc.) Keep rooms as cold as you can stand with a sweater on. When you do need to run an electric heater in a particular room, here is how to understand what you are paying:

Your local electric company bills by the kilowatt-hour. When you turn on a heater that consumes 1,000 watts for one hour, it consumes 1 kilowatt-hour. If you turn on a heater that consumes 1500 watts for 10 hours, it consumes 15 kilowatt-hours. The number of watts a heater uses times the number of hours you leave it on tells you number of watt-hours it consumes. Divide by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours.

The rate you pay for a kilowatt-hour in your state may be anywhere from 6 to 18 cents per kilowatt-hour depending on the area! The USA average is 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.  In Michigan it is 10.72 cents. The aluminum disk inside your electric meter has to go around 100 times to measure 1 kilowatt-hour on most meters in the United States. So the cost to run a 1,500 watt electric baseboard heater in Michigan for 24 hours is $3.86.

Go to the website below to see what you pay in your state:
https://www.electricchoice.com/electricity-prices-by-state.php

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters

Saving money on your heating bill

The truth hurts: Keep rooms as cold as possible (the true key to saving money is minimizing the heat loss from as many walls, floors, windows and ceilings as possible.) The colder a particular room is, the smaller the amount of heat that is lost to the outdoors.

The shock of the monthly cost of heating continues.  Energy costs are not going down any time soon.  For some it is almost as much as their food or mortgage bills.
The problem is that our large houses in America are very hard to heat. The bigger the space, the more it costs to heat.  Here at Mor Electric Heating, we think alot about heat loss calculations.  It is amazing how much more heat is lost from a larger wall or roof area exposed to the outdoors. More windows, more walls and wall space and larger roofs are what heat loss is all about.  Heat lost to the outdoors has to be replaced with a furnace (natural gas or propane), heating oil, wood, pellets, electric heaters or other method.  Every square inch matters.  It is also amazing how even a 1 degree F temperature increase in the air space on the inside of those walls or ceilings makes the amount of heating you are providing to the air in your neighborhood go up.  Yes, you are heating the outdoors!  So the solution is to reduce the air temperature in your house.  That is a hard pill to swallow, but it is the only answer that is highly effective.
The truth is that the only big way to save money on heating costs is to make as many rooms in the house as cold as possible without the pipes freezing (typically the basement is the only danger area.)
Wear your winter coat inside the house? If it really bothers you then maybe keep it nearby for those rarely entered rooms but definitely wear a sweater all the time.
People are desperately trying to lower their heating bill by installing electric heaters in the rooms they tend to use the most.  It’s called zoning, and it works very well.  These smart customers see their furnace or oil burner as the enemy and they are doing everything they can to keep it from firing up.  Extra insulation, under door sweeps, closing doors, window film etc. are all helpful as well.  Many of our customers have electric heat (wall heaters, baseboard heaters, ceiling heaters, etc.) installed in every room with a thermostat in every room.  They micro manage the temperature of each room faithfully by making adjustments to each thermostat and with programming of the set-back thermostats.  It takes some work (and for that many heaters it is also some work to install that many heaters and potentially a 50 or 100 amp sub-panel off your main breaker panel), but customers are reporting that they are cutting their heating bill in half or a third and that can be well over $1,000 per year.
Tips:
• Turn down your thermostat, especially at night and unoccupied hours – every degree you can decrease your temperature setting will save you 2% to 4% in your heating bill
• Open your drapes during the biggest sunlight hours and close them at night
• Caulk around window, doors, and wherever air may leak in or out of the house
• Insulation in the attic (Many people are installing 24″ of blown in fiberglass with great results)
• Use Programmable Thermostats which automatically set back the temperature at night.
Check out some electric comfort heaters here:
and here
Benefits of Electric Heating

Low-income families facing high heating bills because federal funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program were cut

State Government programs that that help administer the Home Heating Credit federal assistance program could see federal heating assistance funds reduced by one-third to one-half.  This news comes at a time when a “harsh, brutal, snowy and cold” winter was predicted for many areas by AccuWeather.com on Oct. 6th. The ENSO update this morning is still showing a La Nina at least as strong as last winter will occur by NOVEMBER.

There is a non-linear relationship between the cost of heating and the outside air temperature and storminess (wind.)  Here at Mor Electric Heating we are very concerned because we know alot about the fact that a winter that is for example twice as “bad” as normal (like is forecasted for this winter and has occurred recently in many areas of the country and in the Great Lakes in the 1970’s) does NOT correlate to a heating bill that is twice as bad.  It is far far worse than that.  Heating degree days is a very complicated calculation of outside temperature and wind and other factors such as insulation, windows, etc..  A winter that is even just ONE degree colder makes it amazingly harder to heat your house.  And a thermostat setting that is just 1 degree higher does the same.  Keep rooms as cold as you can, especially the ones you are not using, to try to get the temperature between the inside and outside of the house closer, to minimize heat loss (Dollars spent). Click here: https://morelectricheating.blogspot.com/search/label/Comfort%20Heaters for some information about saving money using electric comfort heaters.

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Converting to Electric Heat

Survivors of Salem propane explosion are converting their house to electric heat

There is an often overlooked benefit of an all electric home with electric comfort heating versus propane and natural gas. It is possible, although rare, for gas to accumulate in a home and explode. A similar problem is carbon monoxide buildup. This is another reason that we believe electric heat is the future of heating, NOT an antiquated heating method, as many would want you to believe. 


A spark from a pressure switch on a home water system is believed to have ignited propane that accumulated in the basement of a home. The resulting blast killed six people and put five others in the hospital:

Read more: http://poststar.com/news/local/survivors-of-salem-propane-explosion-are-rebuilding-lives/article_deb4ae2e-f54e-11e0-9771-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1afVbtJ6h

We hope that they are blessed with help from others, peace, hope, love, strength and compassion and know that they will be very happy with electric heat, which is an outstanding heating method to choose!

Benefits of Electric Heating, Converting to Electric Heat

A scare for heating oil and propane furnace users. Peak oil has been reached.

The second electric heating boom has started.  One factor (argued since 2005) is that peak oil is probably past us.  Both Goldman Sacks and the International Energy Agency are now saying this.  If supply is now less than demand, which is growing again, heating oil and propane prices will go up even more.  With future production levels from shale oil and tar sands now determined, many other prognosticators are also now saying that no increases in total delivered oil will ever happen again and 70 million barrels per day was the peak. If the Global Peak Oil date (all sources) was some time last year, then the “early peakers” were right after all.

http://theenergycollective.com/sklowem/61012/saudi-arabia-has-reached-peak-oil-output-commodities-rise-goldman-sachs

Here is how desperate and bad the situation has become: Oil crews have drilled a well 7.7 miles down into the ground and 7.1 miles out underneath the ocean (the world’s longest and deepest):

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-06/end-earth-longest-deepest-oil-wells-world

Covert to electric comfort heaters now!

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Converting to Electric Heat, Zoning

Breaking News: Goldman Sachs High Oil Price Forecast and a coming boom in Electric Comfort Heating due to high Heating Oil/Propane prices

Goldman Sachs just set the ball rolling on what has been predicted to happen. They are calling for oil prices to be much higher ($120 per barrel) by 2012 and substantially higher ($140 per barrel) by 2013.  http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9NDVEMG0.htm
Heating Oil, Propane and Gasoline will be $5.00 per gallon very soon.  Natural Gas will eventually buckle under the pressure and start to finally rise.  These are price levels never before seen and higher than in 2007/2008, the last boom in electric heat when droves of people were converting to heating with electricity.
We will soon be offering the best and newest answers to this problem.  Many of our Manufacturers are getting ready to launch amazing new products.  Qmark Marley has an amazing new baseboard heater and the new Dimplex LC Convector (baseboard heater) is already shipping in Canada and we intend to be fully up and running with stock on the ground in July.  Dimplex is adding to their already successful baseboard heater business with this engineering masterpiece and game changer:
To be available in summer 2011, the linear convector is up to 42 percent shorter than conventional baseboard heaters. It features top discharge to transfer heated air to the room fast. A unique shark-fin blade shape for its heating element fins improves heat transfer and accelerates heated air into the room. This configuration also creates a laminar flow effect that reduces heat loss through the outside wall up to 10 percent, providing energy savings to the end user.  It comes in a range of sizes (500-2,500 W).
Benefits of Electric Heating, Converting to Electric Heat

Alaskan people are converting to electric heat!

In Alaska, Sitka’s Blue Lake and Ketchikan’s Whitman Lake hydro facilities may be expanded to accommodate rising electrical usage.

The Sitka project would increase the height of an existing dam and add a turbine to increase hydroelectric generation capacity about 30 percent to power the switch to electric heat. “It will allow us to generate more electricity over a year’s time with the same amount of water,” says Dean Orbison, the engineer overseeing the project for Sitka’s electrical utility. “We’ve found that with rising oil prices people have been switching to electric heat because it’s actually cheaper. So our loads are increasing and we’re raising the damn to meet the load,” he says.

Ketchikan would get additional generators powered by water from Whitman Lake for growing electrical demand also from home heating conversions. 


Link to the full story:  KFSK – Public Radio in Petersburg, Alaska – Local News
Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters, Converting to Electric Heat

Heating Oil Users Meet . . . . . Electric Comfort Heaters!

The high Heating Oil prices (and Propane) and the Middle East uncertainty is causing us to get orders for electric comfort heaters. Some people appear to be tearing out their entire system (Oil furnace, outdoor tank, etc) and installing floor drop-in heaters or wall heaters because there is already a hole in their floor or wall. Ceiling and cove panel infrared heaters are also popular.  People can switch to alot of different choices for heating and we intend to be the leader in helping people convert to electric comfort heating in response to this damaging and amazing rise in the cost of heating. They are a great choice for many people, especially when zoning rooms is part of the plan.

Check out this list of Manufacturers of Electric Comfort Heaters:
https://www.google.com/bookmarks/l#!threadID=GLrVCKeyExR8/BDSFlDAoQqJmW9_Ql

Benefits of Electric Heating, Comfort Heaters

Getting the Most From Your Electric Heat, Myths and Facts About Heating Your Home With Electricity

Getting the Most From Your Electric Heat
Myths and Facts About Heating Your Home With Electricity