Reply #73: Update: 3 years later... [View All]

We've now had the eheaters on the walls for 3 years and used them every winter.

We have 5, total -- one each in the bedroom, dining room, den and our offices.

About 6 months after we installed the one in the den, it burnt out. It was covered by warranty and replaced. No problems getting it replaced, but it did worry me a bit about having it burn out.

Last winter, the one in the bedroom started cracking, but it's out of warranty. Being the odd duck that I am, I took it off the wall and into the lab at work (I'm working for U of Colorado at Boulder now, and the lab where I work has an xray machine, among a few other interesting bits of hardware.). The x-rays show that the cracks appear to be cosmetic -- the coil does not appear to be exposed and the panel appears structurally sound. Since I mostly work from home -- I'm in the lab 2 mornings a week -- the heater is never on when I'm not home.

I'm debating replacing it. I may... or I may spackle the cracks. The thing's not going to burn -- the panel's essentially "hardibacker" drywall -- the water-resistant drywall for kitchens and baths. It's mostly cement and gypsum. If it sparks, it's going to short out -- the way the other one did -- and trip the breaker. I can cope with that. Could it start a fire? Maybe. Is it likely to do? I don't think so.

In terms of energy -- our winter bills run about $200 a month, but xcel jacked both gas and electricity last winter. We're using less energy in terms of therms and joules now than we used in 2001-2005, but the rate is extravagant. We switched to wind power, which helps.

Would I still buy them? Absolutely. More importantly, if I were building this house from the ground up, I think I'd actually skip the furnace altogether and use these for zone heating. I'd probably put them on a timer switch with a manual override. (But if I were building from the ground up, I'd have a different piping scheme, too, and the kitchen and bathrooms would be centrally oriented...)