I saw a two-page ad in the Rocky Mountain News this week about some new miracle heater called the ‘Amish Heat Surge‘ and it fell into the category of things that sounded to me to be ‘just a little fishy’. Later I saw a commercial for the same product. Sure enough, after doing some calculations, I figured out that this is just a scam to overcharge people for a cheap electric heater made in China. Searching the Internet, I found a few unhappy customers who fell for it. Even though the heaters are ‘free’, you pay $298 for the ‘Amish authentic wood mantles’ that enclose them. In reality, there’s no reason to wrap an electric heater with a wooden box or mantle. It also has some sort of fake fire effect. Oh, and shipping costs $50 EACH. And they’ll stick you with an extended warranty for $28 each. So for around $770, you’d get a pair of heaters that do the same thing as a pair of $27 electric heaters you can pick up at Wal-Mart.
A 5,119 BTU/hr heater generates about 1/20th the heat produced by a household furnace. It will draw 1.5 kW. For every hour this thing runs, it will cost about $.15 in electricity, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but over a 730 hour month, that adds up to an extra $108 on your electric bill. Electric resistive heat is the most expensive way to heat a house. It costs about twice as much per BTU as natural gas heat. Just to put it in another perspective, a 2,100 sq. ft. house in my home state of Colorado uses about 6 therms of natural gas a day in the coldest winter months. At the current gas price of $1.20 per therm, a typical gas bill is $216/month during the winter months. To heat your house to the same temperature with this electric heater, you’d need to have 5 of these heaters operating at the high setting 24 hours a day. The additional monthly charges on your electric bill for just the heaters would be $540!
The ad talks about only using it to heat zones, which can save on your heating bill, of course, but only at the expense of having some of the rooms in your home being uncomfortably chilly. And you can’t really completely turn off your central furnace without the risk of pipes freezing. In other words, if you put a heater like this in the room that has your furnace’s thermostat, and thus your furnace never comes on, you may freeze pipes in a remote part of the house.
The ad is full of high pressure sales nonsense, such as requiring a special savings code that expires in 48 hours, or you’d otherwise pay $587 each! There is a limit of 2 per household and they need to ‘turn away dealers’ because they can’t keep up with demand.
If you’re one of the people reading this article who bought an Amish Heat Surge heater, please note that I mean no disrespect to you. I’m just tired of con artists using slick advertising to suck people into buying things that aren’t worth a fraction of the sales price.
Well, I ordered one and it came in last week. I was really hoping it would make my room nice and cozy (As stated in the manual) NOT. This thing would be hard pressed to heat up my small bathroom. It’s going back and I agree with Darold above. When I call to find out how to send it back, I’m concerned that they will say the only thing that is guarantted is the FREE heater. Will let you know.
They were just selling the Heat Surge heaters on HSN tonight for $399 & free shipping. I did not hear them explain that the heating system is made in China, it simply stated Amish built. There are a bunch of these type of fireplaces at Lowes & Home Depot. I seen a few on clearance already for $149.00 They all seem to have similar controls and do the same thing. All are most likely imported. No magical stuff, just a small heater in a large cabinet. It is wonderful marketing. The post about the $21 heater from Walmart doing the same job is correct. Not as nice to look at though. Just about any electric heater can save some money if you set back your central heating thermostat to the rest of the house and essentially spend most of your time in one room. If you are looking for a eye-appealing small heater buy one, but you will be buying it for looks because the price isn’t justified if you simply need a small heater.
My friends: I am an ‘energy engineer’. I DESIGN energy-efficient heating systems as a career (25 yrs), as well as other energy-efficiency equipment and strategies. (O.K. so I’m sorta qualified!) Now….
First, people at home out there want to save money .. that’s the demand or need! Second, ideally, they want to do it safely, conveniently and without spending a lot of money up front, and the heat source should be attractive (not a lot of exposed pipes or other unattractive heating devices in the space, etc.). And these ‘fireplaces’ (!) are what this company supplies by their massive ad-campaign, admittedly well-thought out and well-positioned to take lots of money out of unsuspecting and (not trying to be arrogant here!) uneducated people’s pockets. The fireplace is pretty, attractive and would be safe if it were well-constructed and would stand up to use, which it is NOT and does NOT! As Mr. Devlin states, you can get a safe well-built ceramic heater these for $25-$30 or less! The concept of zone-heating is not new, in fact, I’ve used ceramic heaters in my bedroom and family room for years at low setting myself and save a huge amount by setting my stat back. It’s not a big cabinet sitting in the middle of my rooms! My family loves the money I give them on what we save. It’s attractive, too, because I close a small cabinet door when I’m not using it, and it is out of sight! And they are convenient and I’m comfortable! A small oil-filled electric heater can be completely silent!
America, wake up to the fact that there are people like me who WISH I had thought of this scam myself! (But I have morals, and I feel good about myself for that!) These companies appeal and successfully supply to a lot of people’s “wants/desires”, and successfully suck money out of these people by overcharging for thir cheaply-built (therefore, high profit) products. The massive ad campaign should always be a clue there is something both better quality and less expensive available, if you just do your homework.
In this case a little homework witll save you a LOT of money, both in safety, a long-lived product product, low cost and if you zone heat your house with safe products, you can save a good amount of money on your heating costs too!
Oh, I also enjoyed the ‘cosmic ray’ post, pinging on the lady who thought her bill ‘magically’ did not go up! Lot’s of miconceptions out there, most of it anecdotal, like, “I won’t save any money by turning my lights out if I leave the room for just a few minutes…” (My favorite!) But, let’s be nice…!!