Electric heaters

[jwhite]

I have a few questions about the electric usage of a smaller ceramic heater?
I just bought a medium room Sunbeam ceramic heater from walmart and it heated my trailer very fast.
I am wondering if this type heater pulls alot of power?
I have always thought that these type heaters pulled alot of power or the older ones did?
When I tested it yesterday I have a power strip that I plugged the heater in and it triped after a few minutes so by passed the power strip and plugged it straight into the drop cord from my house and it worked fine.
I am wondering if I should buy another type power strip or are they all 15amp?
I have a honda 2000 generator and it has 2 plugs so I just plug in 2 cords I normally plug in my AC into 1 and the other one I plug my power stip into and haven't had any problems yet>?
I ran this heater alnight in my bedroom and I didn't hear my outside heat pump come on all night.
I am wondering if these heaters pull the same amount of power as other appliances? or are they energy hogs and should be used sparingly?

[pete42]

Most electric heaters run either 1500 watts or some number between 0 and 1500.
so using the formula P=IXE p=power in watts I=amps E=electricity in volts.
divide P by E you should come close to the amount of amps it uses.
I figure it needs 12+ amps to run.
as you know all power strips are not made equal
some use number 16 gage wire some 14 gage and some 12 gage (smaller the number the bigger the wires diameter.
You would not run your heater and AC at the same time so amp draw should be ok.
but the size of the power cord from your generator to the trailer needs to be at least 12 gage no less than 14 gage.
think of a garden hose the longer it is the less pressure you will have at the end same goes for electricity the longer the wire the size of the wire all effect the amount of electricity available.

[Shadow Catcher]

Generating heat using electricity, there is no such thing as a free lunch so watt goes in comes out as heat.
Cords, the cord to the pedestal is 8Ga and I don't own anything less than a 12 ga that is used for outside or the garage etc.

[Engineer Guy]

The Sunbeam Heater linked below is 1,500 Watts. At 115 volts coming out of the Wall Outlet, it draws ~13 Amps. The Power Strip should say on it how many Watts or Amps it can handle before tripping. The longer the Cord from the House/Garage, the more Amps that may be drawn since a long Cord drops the voltage. So, perhaps bypassing the Power Strip is best/safest way to go.

1500 Watt Sunbeam Ceramic Heater

The nice thing about these Heaters is that just about all the electricity is converted into heat; they're efficient.

On the Heater box, and tagged on the Heater itself, it will say how many Watts it draws. So, you don't need to guess about how much power it draws.

The Honda Generator outputs 16.7 Amps.

Honda 2000 Generator [New]

As suggested above, the ideal Cord would be 12 Gauge or larger. The length of the Cord matters, too.

If a 1,500 Watt Heater ran for 1 hour without ever cycling on and off, that equals 1.5 kiloWatt Hours used per hour. At $0.15 per kiloWatt hour [check your Utility Bill for the actual rate], this Heater would cost $0.23 per hour to operate, or $1.85 for 8 hours if it's always on and running.

[jwhite]

Thanks for the replies that was exactly what I was looking for.