heating question for people who understand physics?

Question

we have a kind of room heater which is a combination of storage, radiant and convection. My question is - does it take the same amount of electricity to heat the ceramic core from cold to 10 degrees as it does to heat it from 10 to 20 degrees? I suppose I am asking whether the heating effort is in a straight line or a curve. I know there is a unit Kelvin or whatever which is supposed to be constant but does it vay depending on the material being heated and the temperature it has reached so far?

Frank - thanks for your response. I suppose the "real question" is "the heater suppliers claim that their heaters are more efficient because they have a heat retaining core and just top-up with power as required. Is this really more efficient than a normal convection heater which switches the whole 2kw element on and off when the thermostat tells it to?"

The room is cold when it is 10-15 degrees C and warm at 20.

I suspect that if I could express the question better then I would already know the answer!

Answer 1

You have stopped short of giving us the real data and asking the real question. Thus, we can't answer your real question. What temperature is 'cold'? Curve with respect to what? I think the question you really want to answer is, "How can I balance the cost and benefit of my energy consumption?" It sounds like it's probably not worth turning off your heater for half an hour, but it's probably worth turning it off for 3 hours if you don't really need it.

Answer 2

in short, yes......the amount of energy required is greater depending on the surrounding temperature, and the efficiency of the heating element. If you leave a storage heater on low overnight it actually saves elecricity over the course of the following day, providing it's actually needed.