can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

[newtoCaps101]

Hey Guys, So I was wondering, I have this old retro electric halogen bar heater that I repaired last year, I love it, its portable and one of a kind I used it last year during the winter season to keep me warm. Anyhow it has three settings 800W, 1600W and 2400W. I had some cheap heaters in the house those were 400W 800W and 1200W enough to keep my little room warm. Any how even though I only used 800W(1 of the bars) of it it gave me some big electricity bills, So I was wondering if there was any way I could maybe.. you know lower the wattage or power output thus lowering my electricity bill. Without having to spend any more money on some crappy little plastic heater.

[joshnz]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

Warning heaters contain high voltage and high current poor connections will lead to fire or electric shock.

Anyhow it has three settings 800W, 1600W and 2400W.:

It depends on how it is wired, how many bars does it have?

[Longbow]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

From your description, it looks like each heating bar is an 800 watt element. The higher heat ranges add one or two more bars in parallel. So, if you want less heat than 800 watts, you would wire 2 800 watt bars in series to give you about 400 watts. Disclaimer: make sure you know what you are doing. Heater wire has high temperature insulation and it is always crimped, not soldered. Make sure your mains cord is in good condition and rated for heating appliances such as clothes irons.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

I have a Harbor Freight 1500W heat gun with a 1N5408 diode for temperature control. Is this an experiment in how much the diode's 3 amp rating can be exceeded?

[budm]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

1500Watts, at 120V, that will be 12.5A, that diode is not going to last if they put that in series with 1500 Watts heating element.

[ben7]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

1500Watts, at 120V, that will be 12.5A, that diode is not going to last if they put that in series with 1500 Watts heating element.

lol noo, its used to measure the temperature similar to an NTC. This technique is also used in amplifier circuits, to keep the transistors properly biased.

Well, just what longbow said, use two 800watt elements in series to make a 400W element. Or use all three in series for a 266W element.

-Ben

[budm]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

I do not think the cheaply made Harbor Freight 1500W will be doing anything that complicate. Do not forget, we are talking about Harbor Freight Chinese made products here. You can actually use LARGE enough diode to drop the power in half since you will only use half of the cycle of the supply voltage.

[999999999]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

I am not as confident as others that connecting two 800W in series would result in 400W. Typically things like halogen lights, or even nichrome wire, increase in resistance as temperature rises. I'd expect a significant amount more than 400W, but could be wrong.

Also, if the filament in the bulb still gets hot enough to glow, you may find the filament vaporizes and deposits on the quarts at a higher rate as the halogen helps to redeposit it at particular temperatures for which the bulb is designed to operate. In other words running a halogen bulb at between half power and full power might even cause lower lifespan than at full power.

I think I'd just hook up a thermostat to cycle it on and off at the desired temperature. Otherwise it's sort of a shot in the dark whether whatever wattage it ends up being, happens to coincide to your preferred room temp.

[newtoCaps101]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

okay, i guess i will just leave my retro heater as it is for now instead of risking down scaling it

thanks guys

[999999999]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

^ well you could still do it, otherwise the heater elements have no use right? It'd still be somewhere between 400W and 800W as a guess, assuming the lower heat doesn't cause the sum of two to have lower resistance than one hotter tube would.

I wonder what'd happen if you just put a diode in series with one of them.

[999999999]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

I mean in series across a length of wire so the diode doesn't overheat.

[cadiman]

Re: can I downscale a 2400W Heater?

I would make sure your electrical panel is balanced by checking each leg going into it.(check it with your heaters plugged in with an ac inductive amp meter).

You may find one leg is pulling way more amps than the other and that will stress that leg of the panel and also make your electric bill a bit higher.

I like 220v baseboard if you must use electric heat. They keep the panel balanced and are more cost effective and safer than the cheap portable heaters.