Joel Hendon

Good, Economical Heat For Small Rooms: Sunbeam SCH4051-A Review


Posted: Saturday, December 03, 2011

by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html

Over the past few years, I have studied, read, considered and bought several heaters in order to find the most efficient, lowest cost combination for heating that I could. I’ve spent enough to pay heating bills for some time, but, I believe I have now found what I like best. First of all, I have a living room, dining room and kitchen area that cannot be closed off. All three are in the same area and which covers about 550 square feet with an 8 foot ceiling. The house is relatively tight and is well insulated except under the floors, there is no insulation. This house had a natural gas floor furnace which was installed many years ago. It is still available for use if several calamities happened at one time, however I no longer use it under normal conditions…I’m afraid of it. Our winters here in east central Alabama are not too severe. In an average winter we will generally see a few nights down into the single digits, Fahrenheit. Zero degrees is very rare.

For the large area, I have a 240 volt Patton portable electric heater which produces approximately 10,000 BTU’s of heat. For the most part, it is completely adequate for heating the large area. We have an unvented natural gas wall heater which we only use when a little supplemental heat is needed, or in case of a power outage. I also bought my wife a decorative maple fireplace with an electric heater and imitation flames of an additional 4500 BTU’s for that area.

I have five 120 volt heaters which are used wherever needed. They produce about 5000 BTU’s each. So we have enough to heat anywhere in the house. However, we have always preferred our bedrooms to be very cool, summer and winter. So we never heat them during the day. The five portable space heaters, either of them, are capable of warming our bedroom at night, but they are quite noisy and disturb us. I have also been somewhat afraid of the possibility of a fire should a cord or outlet overheat.

I’ve been searching for a small quiet heater which will pull less electricity to eliminate, or lessen the possibility of a fire. I finally found it. After researching carefully the various small heaters, I found the Sunbeam model SCH4051. The only reviews I could find on it were perfect. Five star ratings altogether. So I found one at Walmart priced at $29.99. I was a little hesitant to begin with, but I thought that for only $29.99, I couldn’t lose very much. The only negative statement I found in any of the reviews was, one fellow said that it is slightly noisy, but he still rated it with 5 stars.

When I got it home and studied the details of it, I felt better about it so I plugged it in and I can understand what the fellow meant. It is not whisper quiet, but it assuredly is not startlingly loud. Since we have been using it, the sound has not been a factor. Also, I am exceedingly pleased with the performance and versatility of the little fellow. I love the lower setting where it only draws 1000 watts. Most outlets and wires can accept a 1500 watt load safely, but a loose fitting plug in an outlet can set your house afire. I have noticed no heating of the wire or plug/outlet and yet it warms our bedroom with ease. I have adjusted the temperature setting to the specific level we like and I do not touch it anymore. It has an on/off switch separate from the thermostat setting. So, we simply turn it off during the day. I find it to be a rather amazing source of heat for just $29.99.

If you would like to see a photo of this neat little heater, you may go to the following link and then click on the icon under the small picture to bring up a large view of it. It is attractive and if you turn it on the high setting (1500 Watts) it blasts out a lot of heat. Even on the 1000 watt setting, the heat is surprising. The cabinet does not get hot, however the front grillwork does so be careful not to have any flammable materials near the front. According to my reasoning, you can’t possibly go more than about $30 wrong. And I personally believe it is worth more. http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-Ceramic-Heater-Small-Room/dp/B004GBKPYK

When you stop and think, you can buy ten of these little heat makers for the price of one of the highly advertised infrared heaters…with the same heating capacity!
Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of conservative religious and political articles.http://hebronics.org/index.html

This Article has been viewed 360 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.