ETS (Electric Thermal Storage) Heating
Zaharchuk
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
Anyone with any experience using ETS heaters? I am considering putting one or two of them in my mountain cabin in Alpine, Arizona. I am currently using a wood buring stove as the primary source of heat. It does a pretty good job, but would like an alternate source. The cabin is a well insulated (R-21 in walls & floors, R-38 in ceiling, dual pane windows) chalet-style (vaulted ceileings in great room) with approximately 1300 square feet. Seems the only information I can find is through the various electric companies that sell them. Thanks. Adam
Replies
We used them in a large victorian we built in '85... work great.. at that time the utility was offering an off-peak rate..now they don't
the theory was they would charge on off-peak.. and heat the rest of the time .. they still work great but the rate is the usual prohibitive electric heat rate...
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
9 years ago I managed a large apartment complex that had these units in every apartment. As Mike mentioned, they were designed to heat at night in the off-peak rate and radiate during the day.
I would never put one of these in my house.
Now understand, I live in upstate NY where electic rates are astrinomical. But aside from cost, we had problems during spring and fall. If the night temp dropped to 40 degrees, but the daytime temp shot up to 70, the tenants had a huge box of heat radiating into their living room.
Likewise if the outside temp dropped sharply, the recovery rate was too slow for some people's comfort.
The units I'm speaking of are 13 yrs old. Maybe improvements have been made since then, but this might give you some questions to ask the sales reps about.