How should I use my weird built-in electric heaters?

April 16, 2008 3:30 PM

I just moved into a new apartment, and the heating is accomplished by these crazy built-in electric heaters. I think they are pretty old -- the brand is Wesix, and I can hardly find anything on Google.

There are 3 of them in the apartment: one big fireplace-looking one and two smaller ones. They look like big coils and are covered by a metal grate. There are one or two big switches to turn them on, and there's an ornery dial that you can turn with a lot of effort to raise or lower the temperature, but there's no automatic regulation going on. After they're on for a while they glow fiercely.

So I have a few questions: can I leave them on at night? How about when I'm not there? Do I have to constantly turn them on and off? What are my approximate chances of being killed by them, and in what form will my death arrive? What is my electric bill going to look like?

Thanks!

posted by Post-it Goat to home & garden (8 comments total)

Where do you live?
posted by bluefrog at 4:46 PM on April 16

In the pacific northwest. Right now it's cold and rainy.
posted by Post-it Goat at 4:50 PM on April 16

I think you'd need to provide more details about the controls for anyone to make a good guess as to how they work.

How many switches are there? One switch for the whole apartment? One switch for each heater? Are the switches located on the heaters themselves or elsewhere?

Same questions go for the "ornery dial" you speak of: Is there one dial in the apartment, or is there a separate dial for each heater? If there's only one dial, is it physically attached to one of the heaters or is it somewhere else, like on a wall?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 5:15 PM on April 16

I think I own a couple of freestanding versions of these I haven't used much since I bought them at a flea market in Seattle.

Mine are in storage and I can't remember the brand name, but I think the ornery dial is actually a thermostat, and the switches turn the maximum heater output up or down in discrete steps. I bought mine because of their attractive Art Deco look. I like the glow when the lights are off, too, but there is a risk of cataracts from infrared radiation, so it's probably wiser not to get into a habit of trances staring into them.

I think they are reasonably safe, but I never felt comfortable leaving them on when I left the house.
posted by jamjam at 5:53 PM on April 16

I used to see these when I was a kid (I'm 29 now)--they were in bathrooms only, from what I recall. And we'd only turn them on when in the bathroom (and I guess turn them off when we left, although I don't remember that part at all. I DO remember going into the cold bathrooms on cold days and having to flip the switch, making me think that they weren't left on all the time). Even at the time I thought it was kind of wild that the design allowed you to get so close to a heat source. But I also never knew anyone getting injured on one--even without it getting as ridiculously hot as it gets, how many times do you accidentally knock into the bottom foot and a half of a wall, I guess is the thinking.

Sorry I can't give you anything more than an anecdote, but since no one with personal experience with these things had responded yet, I thought I'd chime in.
posted by tyrantkitty at 6:36 PM on April 16

Oh, and I grew up in Los Angeles. Maybe it's a West Coast thing.
posted by tyrantkitty at 6:37 PM on April 16

I saw something similar to these in Germany. They were very old, maybe pre-WWII. I did not ever leave them on when I was away or have them on when I was home and asleep. I did sometimes use them when I was home and awake, but not often as that apartment also had steam heat.

I'd also be wary of having them on with kids around.
posted by aerotive at 6:41 PM on April 16

My kid, formerly of Seatle, would mention that when the wind comes up, you turn them on for a while, (or one cycle if they shut off by thermostat) because the wind will knock the trees into the power lines and you're going to lose power, but if you run them once before it dies, you probably will still be sort of comfy when they fix the power lines.

Anything that glows red hot, I'd be dubious about leaving unattended, but if the room is warm when you go to bed, it'll probably be reasonably warm in the morning. If the heaters are not real even, you could use a small fan at night for the circulation.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 8:03 PM on April 20