WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:05.400 You’ve probably heard from all sorts of people  that electric space heaters are dangerous things   00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.976 which are likely to cause a fire. 00:00:07.976 --> 00:00:13.275 And it is true: they can be dangerous and they can start fires. 00:00:13.275 --> 00:00:17.770 However, likely not in the ways you imagine they can. 00:00:17.770 --> 00:00:21.969 Even this cheap plastic heater, which cost less than $20, 00:00:21.969 --> 00:00:29.684 has multiple safety devices which make many of the dangerous scenarios you might imagine nearly impossible. 00:00:29.684 --> 00:00:39.100 And in this video I’ll show you the clever bit of engineering and logic that went into making these things safe despite their bargain basement cost. 00:00:39.100 --> 00:00:48.243 Now, before I continue, I need you to know that I’m going to be demonstrating some very stupid things which nobody should ever repeat. 00:00:48.243 --> 00:00:55.996 The written warnings on a space heater (or really any product) should never be ignored - they were written in blood. 00:00:55.996 --> 00:01:07.147 However, I don’t think we do ourselves any favors when all we know is “this is dangerous” but we don’t understand why and how it’s dangerous. 00:01:07.147 --> 00:01:11.641 That’s a kind of ignorance which leads to unfounded fears and paranoia. 00:01:11.641 --> 00:01:17.243 I quite happily use these bargain basement heaters whenever I need a source of supplemental heat - 00:01:17.243 --> 00:01:21.483 and not simply because I’m a Midwestern cheapskate and that's the one would buy anyway, 00:01:21.483 --> 00:01:28.803 but because I understand the ways these might fail and the protections they have against those failures. 00:01:28.803 --> 00:01:35.196 I love nothing better than when more people understand more things more completely so let’s take a peek inside. 00:01:35.196 --> 00:01:38.109 There really isn't a whole lot going on in these things. 00:01:38.109 --> 00:01:44.621 We have two nichrome wire heating elements sitting behind a fan driven by an electric motor. 00:01:44.621 --> 00:01:47.644 And, well that’s it! 00:01:47.644 --> 00:01:52.321 AC power from the wall gets sent through those wire elements and they start getting really hot. 00:01:52.321 --> 00:02:01.025 And the spinning fan forces air movement through those hot wires  to transfer their heat output into the air and then spread it around the room. 00:02:01.025 --> 00:02:06.089 And thus explains the entirety of its basic principle of operation. 00:02:06.089 --> 00:02:12.546 The controls and how power is routed through the  device are where things get more interesting. 00:02:12.546 --> 00:02:19.091 If we follow the power cord we’ll see that  incoming power is first sent through this tip-over switch. 00:02:19.091 --> 00:02:24.577 That switch is actuated by a little plastic foot sticking out of the heater’s bottom 00:02:24.577 --> 00:02:31.581 and it must be depressed by the weight of the heater in order for the switch to close and the heater to function. 00:02:31.581 --> 00:02:39.283 That's the first safety device and it ensures the heater will shut itself off if for some reason it gets knocked over. 00:02:39.283 --> 00:02:48.000 Next to that switch are a few steel plates which simply serve to make the heater more bottom heavy and less likely to be tipped over in the first place - 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:52.254 this is a pretty recent addition to these cheap heaters and it’s a very welcome one. 00:02:52.254 --> 00:02:54.782 It makes them far more stable. 00:02:54.782 --> 00:03:00.785 After making its way through the tip-over switch, power then finds itself at the thermostat. 00:03:00.785 --> 00:03:08.303 Even these cheap heaters have actual thermostats which react to the room temperature and will shut the heater off once it's warm enough, 00:03:08.303 --> 00:03:12.158 allowing it to maintain a consistent temperature by itself. 00:03:12.158 --> 00:03:19.568 These are basic things, just a bimetallic switch that the control  knob applies varying pressure to in order to affect its trip point, 00:03:19.568 --> 00:03:25.821 so they’re not accurate enough for the manufacturer to print actual temperature values on the control 00:03:25.821 --> 00:03:28.776 but they are more accurate than you may imagine: 00:03:28.776 --> 00:03:33.868 if you run the heater on its maximum setting until the room is as warm as you want it to be 00:03:33.868 --> 00:03:38.373 and then you slowly turn this back down until it clicks off 00:03:38.373 --> 00:03:39.572 [click] 00:03:39.572 --> 00:03:42.987 it’s gonna maintain that room temperature fairly well. 00:03:42.987 --> 00:03:46.610 You might even put a little mark with a sharpie on where it's pointing. 00:03:46.610 --> 00:03:48.845 That way you can put it there again! 00:03:48.845 --> 00:03:53.617 Who needs fancy digital thermostats  when you've got a brain at your disposal? 00:03:53.617 --> 00:03:59.260 Once it’s through the thermostat, power then finds itself at the main selector switch. 00:03:59.260 --> 00:04:08.206 This thing is a little complicated because the heater has  two heating elements of different sizes to allow for three levels of heat output. 00:04:08.206 --> 00:04:17.997 The 600W or the 900W element can be run individually as a low and medium setting (called eco here for annoying reasons), 00:04:17.997 --> 00:04:25.613 or they can be run together on the high setting to produce 1,500W of total heat output. 00:04:25.613 --> 00:04:33.010 The switch selects between powering one, the other, both, or neither on its fan setting, 00:04:33.010 --> 00:04:40.706 a setting which turns this into either a pretty crappy desk fan or a decent white noise machine depending on how you wanna think of it. 00:04:40.706 --> 00:04:49.127 Anyway, power gets sent out of this switch through these wires which land on this terminal block on the heating element assembly. 00:04:49.127 --> 00:04:53.421 The heating elements and the fan receive their power from here. 00:04:53.421 --> 00:04:57.247 These two terminals are for the heating elements themselves. 00:04:57.247 --> 00:05:05.958 As you can see each element is simply a wire which is wound around a circular, slotted temperature-resistant support structure a whole bunch of times 00:05:05.958 --> 00:05:10.723 until it’s back at the start of the circle and on the other side of the terminal block. 00:05:10.723 --> 00:05:16.358 And on that other side, you’ll notice there’s a little something extra going on. 00:05:16.358 --> 00:05:18.845 We still haven’t completed a circuit here - 00:05:18.845 --> 00:05:29.004 everything we’ve looked at so far has come from the incoming hot wire and we have to connect it to the outgoing neutral wire for the heater to actually function. 00:05:29.004 --> 00:05:35.091 And this terminal here is where the neutral wire of the power cord attaches to. 00:05:35.091 --> 00:05:41.897 But the heating elements (as well as the fan and the neon power indicator) don’t connect directly to neutral: 00:05:41.897 --> 00:05:45.379 first they go through this switch. 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:48.655 This is a high-temperature limit switch. 00:05:48.655 --> 00:05:57.184 It’s an unassuming little fella but it’s the reason why this plastic heater can be made cheaply yet also safely. 00:05:57.184 --> 00:06:03.061 This switch is normally closed and so will allow the heating elements to become powered. 00:06:03.061 --> 00:06:07.874 And under ordinary circumstances, it will stay closed forever. 00:06:07.874 --> 00:06:16.308 But if anything should happen which causes that switch to get hotter than 75 degrees Celsius (that’s 167 Fahrenheit) 00:06:16.308 --> 00:06:23.348 a bimetallic snap disc will force the switch to open, breaking the circuit and shutting off the heater. 00:06:23.348 --> 00:06:27.133 Say, for example, the fan motor had failed. 00:06:27.133 --> 00:06:34.713 The fan in these things is critical not only to help move the room’s air around to distribute the heat they produce more evenly 00:06:34.713 --> 00:06:39.422 but also simply to get that heat out of its plastic body. 00:06:39.422 --> 00:06:42.720 The 1,500 watts coming from this is a lot of heat! 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:51.758 And even with the open front and back, without that fan spinning this thing will quickly start melting and perhaps catch fire. 00:06:51.758 --> 00:06:58.310 But this limit switch will intervene if the fan stops turning for any reason. 00:06:58.310 --> 00:07:02.048 To show you this, I completely removed the fan from this heater. 00:07:02.048 --> 00:07:03.562 It’s gone. 00:07:03.562 --> 00:07:09.467 So when I switched it on, it started drawing full power yet couldn't move any air through itself. 00:07:09.467 --> 00:07:16.576 That could be a disaster, but not even 15 seconds later this switch opened and the heater shut off. 00:07:16.576 --> 00:07:17.928 Here’s a close-up. 00:07:17.928 --> 00:07:21.080 And for the record - I cut the fan motor out of the circuit, here. 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:27.040 So that arcing is entirely down to the switch  breaking the current from the heating elements. 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.472 The heater was pretty quick to shut itself down, wasn’t it? 00:07:30.472 --> 00:07:32.429 That’s due to its design. 00:07:32.429 --> 00:07:35.011 Look at where the terminal block is. 00:07:35.011 --> 00:07:40.799 It’s at roughly the 10 o’clock position of the circular heating element assembly as installed in the heater, 00:07:40.799 --> 00:07:45.623 and that places the limit switch directly above the heating elements. 00:07:45.935 --> 00:07:52.016 With the fan functioning,  enough air is pulled through to keep the limit switch cool. 00:07:52.016 --> 00:08:00.731 But if the fan stops, or just isn't working, the air next to the heating elements will quickly heat up and rise right into the limit switch. 00:08:00.731 --> 00:08:03.059 That’s why it reacted so quickly. 00:08:03.059 --> 00:08:09.845 But 75 degrees C is cool enough to open that switch in other scenarios, too. 00:08:09.845 --> 00:08:14.176 For instance, say the heater becomes blocked by something. 00:08:14.176 --> 00:08:18.030 Like this random griddle insert I have lying around. 00:08:18.030 --> 00:08:25.519 While the fan is still functioning normally, it’s not able to get that much air out of the heater with the griddle in front of it. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:28.681 And that means the temperature inside is climbing. 00:08:28.681 --> 00:08:33.362 Some air is still getting around the griddle so the  temperature doesn’t climb that rapidly 00:08:33.362 --> 00:08:39.409 but about 90 seconds after placing it there, the limit switch opened and shut off the heater. 00:08:39.409 --> 00:08:40.793 Good job. 00:08:40.793 --> 00:08:43.543 Wanna see something even more dangerous? 00:08:43.543 --> 00:08:50.956 Every heater out there has a very explicit “do not cover” printed on it somewhere but what if, oh, 00:08:50.956 --> 00:08:55.437 a very flammable beach towel were to be thrown on top of it? 00:08:55.437 --> 00:08:58.535 Again - don’t ever do this. 00:08:58.535 --> 00:09:01.335 I had a fire extinguisher at the ready just in case. 00:09:01.335 --> 00:09:10.830 But, in just under a minute, the air inside the heater had exceeded 75 degrees Celsius so that limit switch opened and the heater shut itself down. 00:09:10.830 --> 00:09:13.739 The towel wasn’t even that hot when I took it off. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:19.038 But perhaps you noticed something a little strange in the clips I’ve just shown you. 00:09:19.038 --> 00:09:24.595 When the heater shut itself down, its power consumption didn’t drop to zero. 00:09:24.595 --> 00:09:31.919 It was drawing about 1 watt despite that limit switch being open and thus the circuit being broken. 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:34.399 What’s consuming that power? 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:39.168 Well, and here’s the twist - the limit switch itself. 00:09:39.168 --> 00:09:41.528 Take a look in the thermal imaging camera. 00:09:41.528 --> 00:09:46.957 That limit switch is still hot despite the rest of the heater having cooled off. 00:09:46.957 --> 00:09:53.569 And that’s because this limit switch actually has a small PTC heater embedded within itself 00:09:53.569 --> 00:10:01.571 and connected across the switch from the incoming hot to a second neutral connection down below the main switch. 00:10:01.571 --> 00:10:08.070 You don’t need to know what PTC means - it’s a kind of self-regulating heating element and they can be made very small. 00:10:08.070 --> 00:10:15.043 The upshot is, with the limit switch closed that PTC heater is bypassed and doesn’t do anything. 00:10:15.043 --> 00:10:25.052 But if that switch on top opens, suddenly there’s 120V across  the heater so it starts functioning and it gets warm. 00:10:25.052 --> 00:10:30.219 The purpose of this is to keep the heater disabled indefinitely. 00:10:30.219 --> 00:10:40.647 The moment that switch opens, because of that PTC heater kicking in, the limit switch will remain above its trip temperature so it cannot rest. 00:10:40.647 --> 00:10:45.832 Therefore it prevents the heater from working again so long as it has power going to it. 00:10:45.832 --> 00:10:55.332 And that means a single instance of overheating  will effectively lock out the heater from functioning until someone tends to it. 00:10:55.332 --> 00:11:04.044 Resetting that limit switch is as easy as unplugging the heater for a while, shutting off that PTC heater and allowing it to cool off and close again. 00:11:04.044 --> 00:11:08.567 And it has written instructions on the heater to explain this procedure. 00:11:08.567 --> 00:11:17.067 But until you actually do that, the heater will remain locked out and it cannot turn itself back on. 00:11:17.067 --> 00:11:23.397 This is fascinating and I only discovered this behavior when I filmed this test! 00:11:23.397 --> 00:11:32.062 I fully expected the heater to reset on its own, start functioning, and then just trip again - which is a reasonable approach to safety. 00:11:32.062 --> 00:11:35.056 But a lockout is even safer. 00:11:35.056 --> 00:11:42.499 Whatever might have caused one of these things to overheat - say someone tossing and turning in bed and throwing a blanket on top of it in their sleep - 00:11:42.499 --> 00:11:47.467 still presents a potential danger if the heater can start back up on its own. 00:11:47.467 --> 00:11:56.867 So, by ensuring it can’t until the user takes positive action to reset that lockout,  it lowers the risk of fire even further. 00:11:56.867 --> 00:12:02.061 This is such an elegant solution made using ridiculously simple components 00:12:02.061 --> 00:12:06.244 and that’s the sort of problem solving and ingenuity that really floats my bread. 00:12:06.244 --> 00:12:07.302 Butters my fancy. 00:12:07.302 --> 00:12:08.802 Tickles my boat. 00:12:08.802 --> 00:12:12.738 Now, this lockout mechanism isn’t quite perfect. 00:12:12.738 --> 00:12:18.604 For one, if while it’s locked out there was a power interruption for about a minute or longer 00:12:18.604 --> 00:12:23.697 then the switch will reset and the heater will start working again when the power comes back. 00:12:23.697 --> 00:12:30.336 But also, while the reset instructions imply  that you need to unplug the heater to reset it, 00:12:30.336 --> 00:12:40.144 you actually don’t and that presents one scenario where it could potentially reset on its own even with a steady source of power keeping the lockout functional. 00:12:40.144 --> 00:12:47.935 If, while it was in the locked-out condition, the room temperature were to rise enough to trip the heater’s thermostatic switch, 00:12:48.280 --> 00:12:57.316 the opening of that switch will remove power from the PTC heater in the limit switch and before long it will cool down and close again. 00:12:57.316 --> 00:13:00.920 With the thermostat tripped it's not gonna start heating again, 00:13:00.920 --> 00:13:08.664 but if the room temperature then cools enough to close the thermostatic switch, the heater will resume functioning. 00:13:08.664 --> 00:13:13.802 But, in case it’s not apparent, that’s not a very likely scenario. 00:13:13.802 --> 00:13:18.268 Speaking of the thermostat, though - I’ve uncovered another surprise. 00:13:18.268 --> 00:13:22.582 Back when I started writing this script I said there were multiple safety devices. 00:13:22.582 --> 00:13:27.761 And there are two: the limit switch and the tip-over switch. 00:13:27.761 --> 00:13:34.259 And I was going to include the thermostat as a third line of defense against dangerous situations. 00:13:34.259 --> 00:13:39.513 See, I figured at its highest setting it might maintain a room temperature of... 00:13:39.513 --> 00:13:43.010 I dunno, 90 degrees? 32 Celsius? 00:13:43.010 --> 00:13:53.925 So even if the limit switch somehow didn’t trip in an overheating situation the thermostat should shut it off eventually and at least limit its heat output. 00:13:53.925 --> 00:14:03.366 But I wanted to test that, so I stuck the heater in a closed  highly flammable cardboard box, set it to max, and poked a thermometer in the side. 00:14:03.366 --> 00:14:05.342 Again - don’t do that. 00:14:05.342 --> 00:14:09.856 Uh, turns out it got hot real fast which tripped the limit switch. 00:14:09.856 --> 00:14:12.462 Which, I mean, good! 00:14:12.462 --> 00:14:15.097 But that doesn’t answer my question. 00:14:15.097 --> 00:14:18.622 Thinking that was just a case of things getting too hot too quickly 00:14:18.622 --> 00:14:25.272 I tried it again but with the heater set to its low heat setting and the thermostat still set to the max. 00:14:25.272 --> 00:14:28.584 And the limit switch still tripped on me. 00:14:28.584 --> 00:14:36.262 So I put a different heat producing device with its own ability to regulate the temperature inside the box along with the space heater 00:14:36.262 --> 00:14:40.463 and kept the inside of the box near 150 degrees. 00:14:40.463 --> 00:14:49.329 The thermostat still functions as normal when the heater is in fan mode so I was watching the kill-a-watt to see when the thermostat would switch it off. 00:14:49.329 --> 00:14:52.019 But it just… didn’t! 00:14:52.019 --> 00:15:00.528 After more than 10 minutes of being in a 150 degree hot box (that’s 65 Celsius) it was still happily running. 00:15:00.528 --> 00:15:06.738 And when I checked to see just how much I’d have to move the thermostat dial back from max to make it shut off… 00:15:07.621 --> 00:15:10.507 it was a lot farther than I would have expected. 00:15:10.507 --> 00:15:14.726 I knew these thermostats aren’t calibrated very well but that’s ridiculous. 00:15:14.726 --> 00:15:18.365 So count the thermostat out as a safety device. 00:15:18.365 --> 00:15:22.830 If it's set to its highest setting it’s just never gonna intervene. 00:15:22.830 --> 00:15:29.830 That may very well be unique to this model of heater, and the limit switch in the heating element assembly is much more important anyway, 00:15:30.355 --> 00:15:31.937 but yeah. 00:15:31.937 --> 00:15:39.026 So now, let’s circle back to the start where I said space heaters are dangerous and can cause fires. 00:15:39.026 --> 00:15:46.737 I hope by now you can see that the design of the heater makes it extremely unlikely that the thing itself will catch fire 00:15:46.737 --> 00:15:51.364 but that is absolutely not the only way things can go wrong. 00:15:51.364 --> 00:15:56.948 The simplest and most straightforward fire hazard to explain is... uh... 00:15:56.948 --> 00:16:00.258 flammable items near a hot thing. 00:16:00.258 --> 00:16:06.563 The warnings about keeping flammable stuff at least 3 feet away from the heater are all about minimizing that risk 00:16:06.563 --> 00:16:14.563 (and by the way, 3 feet is a yard which, fun fact, is pretty close to a meter - keep that in your back pocket). 00:16:14.563 --> 00:16:21.456 However, that risk is situational and depends a lot on the kind of space heater you’re using. 00:16:21.456 --> 00:16:25.822 If potentially setting fire to objects in the room is your concern, 00:16:25.822 --> 00:16:31.024 you might be surprised but these cheap heaters are actually among the safest options. 00:16:31.493 --> 00:16:38.383 The device itself doesn't get very hot at all because  the fan does a very good job moving air through it, 00:16:38.383 --> 00:16:43.059 and that also means the air that's leaving isn’t actually all that hot. 00:16:43.059 --> 00:16:53.213 In a room-temperature environment, the highest temperature reading I observed  with a thermometer right in front of this was 155 degrees, not quite 70 Celsius. 00:16:53.213 --> 00:17:00.238 So unless something highly flammable manages to get through the grilles and actually touch the heating elements, 00:17:00.238 --> 00:17:03.369 this isn't likely to set fire to anything. 00:17:03.369 --> 00:17:08.646 That doesn’t mean you should tempt fate, but it should hopefully put your mind at ease. 00:17:08.646 --> 00:17:15.293 However, other kinds of heaters have much hotter surfaces,  particularly those with heating elements that glow, 00:17:15.293 --> 00:17:18.266 so again that risk is very situational. 00:17:18.266 --> 00:17:21.736 But it’s easy to understand and to mitigate. 00:17:21.736 --> 00:17:28.932 The larger reason space heaters are known to be a fire hazard actually has nothing to do with the heaters themselves 00:17:28.932 --> 00:17:32.450 and everything to do with your home’s electrical wiring. 00:17:32.450 --> 00:17:42.764 Most of these things which are on the market, regardless of type, will put out 1,500 watts of heat and that requires 12 amps of current at 120V. 00:17:42.764 --> 00:17:49.123 That is the maximum allowed to be drawn continuously from a typical 15A circuit, 00:17:49.123 --> 00:17:55.449 and that means plugging in a space heater becomes an instant stress test for whatever circuit it’s on, 00:17:55.449 --> 00:18:02.761 and that can reveal electrical issues you didn’t know  about and potentially with awful consequences. 00:18:02.761 --> 00:18:09.096 For instance, if there’s a very slightly loose  wire nut in a junction box somewhere in your walls, 00:18:09.096 --> 00:18:13.306 or maybe there’s a connection point somewhere that's got a little corrosion on it, 00:18:13.306 --> 00:18:16.015 that’s usually not a problem. 00:18:16.015 --> 00:18:21.014 While it might introduce a little bit  of electrical resistance at that point in the circuit, 00:18:21.014 --> 00:18:25.228 if all you’re using that circuit for is charging a laptop or phone, 00:18:25.228 --> 00:18:31.003 not much current will go through that connection so the issue won’t ever present itself. 00:18:31.003 --> 00:18:35.915 But if you plug a space heater in, that can quickly change. 00:18:35.915 --> 00:18:42.798 That marginal connection point will start heating up because of the large current the heater is drawing through the circuit. 00:18:42.798 --> 00:18:46.927 And if it heats up too much, that can start a fire. 00:18:46.927 --> 00:18:56.676 This is made worse by the fact that technically a space heater should be the only thing on a 15 amp circuit if it’s gonna be drawing 12 amps. 00:18:56.676 --> 00:19:01.109 But in real life, it’s going to be sharing that circuit with some other stuff: 00:19:01.109 --> 00:19:06.894 perhaps a TV and a sound system in the living room or a desktop computer in a bedroom. 00:19:06.894 --> 00:19:12.073 That means when the heater’s running  at its full power you’re really pushing that circuit 00:19:12.073 --> 00:19:17.546 and so if there are any problems with the  wiring they’re more likely to become an issue. 00:19:17.546 --> 00:19:20.030 But, I don’t wish to fearmonger. 00:19:20.030 --> 00:19:23.333 That scenario is realistically quite rare. 00:19:23.333 --> 00:19:28.619 The wiring that's in your walls mostly doesn’t get touched unless you’re doing remodeling or something. 00:19:28.619 --> 00:19:35.066 So spontaneous development of issues, while that can happen, is quite rare. 00:19:35.066 --> 00:19:41.053 However, the receptacles that you plug stuff into (including a space heater) 00:19:41.053 --> 00:19:43.298 those things get touched all the time. 00:19:43.298 --> 00:19:51.268 And each time a plug is inserted and then removed from a receptacle a teeny tiny bit of wear occurs. 00:19:51.268 --> 00:20:00.587 The springiness of the contacts inside there can weaken and if the outlet is really worn it might barely be able to hold on to a plug. 00:20:00.587 --> 00:20:08.040 Receptacles like that are primed to become a major issue when you  plug a 12 amp load into them and let it rip,   00:20:08.040 --> 00:20:13.317 and they are a major reason electrical fires  start when people use space heaters. 00:20:13.317 --> 00:20:20.181 A poor connection between the plug and receptacle  can introduce enough electrical resistance to make the plug extremely hot - 00:20:20.181 --> 00:20:23.914 to the point of melting wires and burning insulation. 00:20:23.914 --> 00:20:28.103 If you have loose receptacles in your home, they really should be replaced. 00:20:28.103 --> 00:20:34.511 Which, by the way, is quite easy to do but you’re gonna have to  look for your own information and guidance there. 00:20:34.511 --> 00:20:41.514 But then, even with a perfectly cromulent  electrical system with everything in hunky-dory tip-top shape, 00:20:41.514 --> 00:20:44.920 there’s the problem of extension cords and power strips. 00:20:44.920 --> 00:20:52.590 Although it is sometimes inconvenient, a space heater should always be plugged directly into a wall outlet. 00:20:52.590 --> 00:20:57.439 No splitters, no power taps - directly into a wall outlet. 00:20:57.439 --> 00:21:04.964 Extension cords, power strips, and all those adapters and whatnot are not built to the same standards that actual receptacles are. 00:21:04.964 --> 00:21:10.970 So although those products may technically be rated to pass more current than a space heater needs, 00:21:10.970 --> 00:21:20.126 their often poor construction means each individual connection might not be so great and it introduces an element of risk which you might as well just not introduce. 00:21:20.126 --> 00:21:27.103 In fact, the voltage drop introduced by the extra connections between the space heater and the wall outlet on the other end of that power tap 00:21:27.103 --> 00:21:33.103 is part of the reason that the heaters were only drawing 1,200 to 1,300 watts in my testing. 00:21:33.103 --> 00:21:40.911 Plenty of power strips have ended up very melted because someone plugged a space heater into them, so just don’t. 00:21:40.911 --> 00:21:45.903 I hope you can see, though, that the space heater itself is not scary. 00:21:45.903 --> 00:21:51.406 Even these really cheap ones are designed and built to be extremely safe. 00:21:51.406 --> 00:21:59.635 The danger in using them is actually just because most people don’t have a very thorough understanding of electrical safety. 00:21:59.635 --> 00:22:06.496 Most of the scenarios where a space heater can become dangerous are quite easy to spot long before that occurs 00:22:06.496 --> 00:22:12.848 but you need to know what a poor electrical connection is and how to detect it. 00:22:12.848 --> 00:22:18.608 If you plug a space heater into an outlet which is holding it firmly, you’re probably fine. 00:22:18.608 --> 00:22:23.882 But if that outlet can barely hold onto the plug, find a different one. 00:22:23.882 --> 00:22:31.671 And if you want to be extra safe, feel how warm the plug is getting after the heater’s been running for 10 minutes or so. 00:22:31.671 --> 00:22:40.723 It’s completely normal for it to be a little warm to the touch, but if it’s hot - something’s very wrong and you need to shut off the heater and unplug it. 00:22:40.723 --> 00:22:48.522 As a closing message, if you live in a place  which is cold enough that a failure of your heating system could freeze your pipes, 00:22:48.522 --> 00:22:53.802 I think it’s very wise to have some space heaters on hand for emergencies. 00:22:53.802 --> 00:23:00.472 $60 can get you three of these things and while they won’t be able to match your main system’s heat output, 00:23:00.472 --> 00:23:07.202 they can probably keep your home significantly above freezing and at least one room can stay comfortable. 00:23:07.202 --> 00:23:11.564 And if you’re on the heat pump train but you don’t have a dedicated resistive heat backup, 00:23:11.564 --> 00:23:15.092 such as if you went with a multi-head mini-split system, 00:23:15.092 --> 00:23:17.337 these can do the trick just fine. 00:23:17.337 --> 00:23:23.256 The heat strips in a centrally-ducted heat pump system are just a bigger version of this thing, 00:23:23.256 --> 00:23:33.393 so a few of these heaters can absolutely be used to fill in the gap when and if the outside temp is so cold that the heat pump can’t quite keep up on its own. 00:23:33.393 --> 00:23:38.546 If you are ever in a scenario where you need  to use multiple space heaters at the same time, 00:23:38.546 --> 00:23:42.639 you’re gonna need to identify which outlets are on what circuits 00:23:42.639 --> 00:23:47.984 because two space heaters running on the same circuit will quickly trip the circuit breaker. 00:23:47.984 --> 00:23:52.185 Although - another fun benefit of these cheap fan-forced heaters 00:23:52.185 --> 00:24:00.639 is that two of them actually can share a circuit so long as they’re both set to low or one's on low and the other’s on medium. 00:24:00.639 --> 00:24:09.559 Strategic placement of these fellas can probably be your only heat source in a pinch - as those of you who saw my video on HVAC system sizing already know. 00:24:10.719 --> 00:24:15.651 That would be a very expensive way to  heat your home in most cases but hey, 00:24:15.651 --> 00:24:20.438 the actual heaters are quite cheap so it’s a compelling backup option. 00:24:20.438 --> 00:24:24.044 However, as much as I like these cheap fan-forced heaters 00:24:24.044 --> 00:24:29.377 and think they’re unquestionably the most reasonable option to keep on hand as a backup, 00:24:29.377 --> 00:24:36.214 this baseboard-style of heater has become my new favorite when I actually want supplemental heat somewhere. 00:24:36.214 --> 00:24:48.118 This places the heating elements in open air and relies solely on the convection  currents which form as the air inside heats up, expands, and then floats out the top. 00:24:48.118 --> 00:24:54.399 These things are completely silent but they can also sustain their full 1,500 watts of output - 00:24:54.399 --> 00:24:58.773 something those oil-filled heaters simply cannot do. 00:24:58.773 --> 00:25:04.421 Because of how this works it has much hotter surfaces and that makes them more dangerous in some ways, 00:25:04.421 --> 00:25:08.533 but it also don’t have any moving parts which can fail. 00:25:08.533 --> 00:25:16.006 Still, sure enough, take a peek inside and we find the same exact limit switch that we do in the fan-forced heater. 00:25:16.006 --> 00:25:24.941 So if someone were to, I dunno, throw a beach towel over one of these things, it will eventually lock itself out just like the fan heater does. 00:25:24.941 --> 00:25:27.873 Actually, I better test that. 00:25:27.873 --> 00:25:30.968 Again, don’t ever do this yourself. 00:25:30.968 --> 00:25:35.830 The limit switch did kick in when it was completely covered by the towel but… 00:25:35.830 --> 00:25:42.188 I wondered what would happen if it was mostly covered but the area above the limit switch wasn’t. 00:25:43.624 --> 00:25:46.769 Yeah here things aren’t so rosy. 00:25:46.769 --> 00:25:52.819 Because the limit switch is below the heating elements (which it has to be otherwise it would trip in normal operation) 00:25:52.819 --> 00:26:00.000 so long as there’s enough of the heater uncovered to supply  sufficient airflow through those vents down there 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.807 the limit switch stays cool enough that it doesn't trip. 00:26:03.807 --> 00:26:08.036 I stuck a thermometer under the towel to see how hot things were getting 00:26:08.036 --> 00:26:13.718 and I kept creeping the towel further and further to the right to block more and more of the heater's venting. 00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:22.600 By the end we had exceeded the thermometer’s  maximum temperature reading of 200 Celsius, 392 Fahrenheit, 00:26:22.600 --> 00:26:24.663 and the heater was still running. 00:26:24.994 --> 00:26:31.801 For the icing on the cake - I set a timer at that point for 5 minutes to end the test before things got out of hand 00:26:31.801 --> 00:26:38.029 and while it did shut off before that timer ran out, it wasn’t the limit switch that shut it off. 00:26:38.029 --> 00:26:39.995 It was the thermostat! 00:26:39.995 --> 00:26:44.445 That’s why power consumption went to zero and not a watt or two. 00:26:44.445 --> 00:26:48.103 Once I removed the towel it quickly turned back on. 00:26:48.103 --> 00:26:49.589 Not so great. 00:26:49.589 --> 00:26:54.162 And the adhesive on that little “hot” sticker sure was destroyed. 00:26:54.162 --> 00:26:59.295 But on the other hand, some of you have kitchen stoves which emit open flames. 00:27:01.366 --> 00:27:08.747 That might seem like a non sequitur but my point there is that we aren’t  so scared of objectively dangerous things 00:27:08.747 --> 00:27:13.796 when we understand what those dangers actually are and how we can avoid them. 00:27:13.796 --> 00:27:21.022 In the case of this heater - sure, it might start a fire if someone throws their jacket on top of it. 00:27:21.022 --> 00:27:25.541 But so long as you’re careful enough to not do that, 00:27:25.541 --> 00:27:33.068 the fact that there are no moving parts in this thing means it can’t really fail in a way which presents a danger on its own. 00:27:33.068 --> 00:27:37.234 So, as with so many things in life, there are trade-offs. 00:27:37.234 --> 00:27:40.623 And those are up to you to figure out. 00:27:40.623 --> 00:27:45.399 Once you’ve done that, you can make informed decisions for your own benefit. 00:27:45.399 --> 00:27:49.222 And that’s a kind of empowerment that we all deserve. 00:27:50.188 --> 00:27:52.799 ♫ manageably smooth jazz ♫ 00:27:53.634 --> 00:27:56.029 And not simply because I’m midwub 00:27:56.029 --> 00:27:58.124 AAAGGH - I’m a midwestern. 00:27:58.124 --> 00:27:59.148 That’s hard. 00:27:59.148 --> 00:28:01.376 The springingnyess of the cont… 00:28:01.376 --> 00:28:02.573 spring-ee-ness. 00:28:02.573 --> 00:28:03.426 Springiness. 00:28:03.426 --> 00:28:04.842 The springingest… 00:28:04.842 --> 00:28:05.813 springingess? 00:28:05.813 --> 00:28:06.984 Springiness. 00:28:06.984 --> 00:28:07.820 Oh. 00:28:08.703 --> 00:28:09.633 That’s… 00:28:09.771 --> 00:28:10.631 s[bleep] 00:28:11.819 --> 00:28:13.727 I picked the wrong one. 00:28:13.727 --> 00:28:16.637 You mean I have to put this back apart right now? 00:28:16.637 --> 00:28:18.173 Back apart? 00:28:18.173 --> 00:28:22.342 This is a great use of camera resources - memory. 00:28:22.342 --> 00:28:31.783 This is… this whole thing is gonna be backed up in two places and it’s just me putting a thing back together that I forgot to do before I started recording. 00:28:31.783 --> 00:28:35.655 The switch selects between powering one, the other, both or - 00:28:35.655 --> 00:28:38.004 I’m not even pointing at it. 00:28:39.108 --> 00:28:42.231 Things do seem to be heating up. 00:28:42.231 --> 00:28:46.099 But the mere possibility of something occurring doesn't need to be scary. 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:50.417 Learn about those possibilities and you can get ahead of them. 00:28:50.417 --> 00:28:55.280 Just a reminder. Useful in lots of ways.