"zoned heating" wall units (apartments, rental, house)

[christiner81]

i've never seen these anywhere else. toured a potential rental house today that has these heaters in the wall. anyone have experience with these? it kinda looks like a burn hazard to me since they are low enough for a kid to touch...unless they aren't hot on the surface. This house was built in the late 70's or early 80's I think.

[karlsch]

It looks like an electric wall heater with a fan. Probably the most popular brand is Cadet: Electric Wall Heaters - Zonal Energy Efficient Electric Fan Heaters

If they are functioning properly and kept clean there should be no burn hazard.

They, and electric convection wall heaters, are a cheap way for builders to provide heat. All you do is run romex cable from the circuit breaker box to the heater. Often these builders also skimped on insulation and windows to save money so the electric bill for heating can be quite high.

The ones with fans often make a high pitched, irritating noise when they get older.

[Sherwoody]

We have these in our apartment and they work well for us because we really only need to heat the front room/dining area in the morning and again when we get home in the evening. Those rare very cold nights we might use on in a bedroom, but only a handful of times. Again, it is an apartment with only one side exposed to the outside. I'm sure a single family home would be a VERY different situation.

[hamellr]

I've lived in places with those before, they seem to work marginally better then baseboard heaters. Electrical cost is about the same.

[Minervah]

If it has a fan, it probably would work a bit better than the electric baseboard heaters. With those, unless you have a ceiling fan to draw the heat up, it just sits there costing you more in your electric bill.

This in the wall heater looks like it's in a sensible place. I've seen them higher up on the wall and that doesn't make much sense since heat rises so it seems to me that the lower the unit the better chance it will have to spread the heat along the wall. Any higher and you would just be heating your ceiling.

[scottinpdx]

Those are pretty common in apartments and rental units. They are safe, long as you keep flammable material away from them and with a dash of common sense.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Maybe you could supervise your child and possibly teach him to not touch the heaters.

You can't put anything flamable really close to them.,

[Minervah]

You don't want to put anything flammable in front of these but maybe a small table sort of like one in the picture that will clear the vent on one side and another on the other side. Then put something heavy on them so they cannot be moved. I don't think they get all that hot but just to be on the safe side.

I wonder if the fire department in the area would have some suggestions for you. I bet they deal with things like this all the time.

[karlsch]

From Cadet Web site:
Technical Information:
Fan heaters and thermostats work best when installed on an inside wall.
UL requires heater to be placed a minimum distance of 6” from adjacent
surfaces and 4½” from the floor. Manufacturer recommends installation
12” from all surfaces. All models 1500 watts or less may be ceiling mounted.
A 3’ minimum clearance is required for furniture or other objects placed
directly in front of heater.
NOTE:Manufacturer recommends installing heater assembly after walls
are finished. Heater must be cleaned every six months minimum.

http://www.cadetco.com/support/specsheet/1002.pdf

[GeekOfTheOzarks]

My 1br apartment has four of these. The electric bill (all electric) has been less than $100 a month for the past three months (I also have two PCs on most of the time). The heaters are too noisy for my liking, however. You can't have a normal conversation when they are running. Fortunately this winter has been mild and they don't run all that much. The air temp that comes out of the heaters is only a little above room temperature - not hot at all. I wouldn't put expensive furniture in the air flow path though as it is dry air and might damage some furniture but I would say that it is pretty safe technology as long as you don't block the airflow.