electric infrared portable unit

[jonny o]

Anyone try an infrared portable unit in a shop environment?
I am still doing some measuring and insulation verifying before I lay out all of my questions to you guys, but am really interested in one of these units to maintain a low level of heat.

I saw how well they worked in a family members open, drafty historical loft apartment and am thinking about how well they would work in my shop. Hers was a Solar Comfort brand. Obviously it was slow to warm up the area but cost pennies to maintain her place with no other heat source. We're talking single pane windows with towels in the open jams, hardwood floor, exposed brick and huge square footage...

Any experience in general?
http://www.solarcomfortheat.com/index.htmlhttp://www.solarcomfortheat.com/index.html

[Gary S]

From the information on their website, it appears to be a 120v 1500w unit. That means you get about 5000 btu from it.
5000 btu won't heat a very big area unless you have 4 foot thick insulated walls or unless you live in southern California or Florida.
5000 btu is 5000 btu and it is better than nothing, but in a large space during cold weather you will need more.
I have electric heaters in my garage that put out 30,000 btu, and even that takes quite a while to heat up my insulated garage.

[Mattlt]

Snake oil.

These outfits make it sound like they've changed the laws of physics. Well, you can only get so many BTU's from a watt. (3.4 if memory serves me correct)

Do yourself a favor and go buy a $25 milkhouse heater. That won't do much for heating a shop either, but at least you'll save $600.