Tips to Clean and Maintain Electric Fireplace

An electric fireplace is deemed as the most cost efficient alternative for the traditional wood and gas burning fireplaces. Unlike in wood burning fireplaces, the electric fireplace do not require chimneys and so the maintenance costs are low, it does not use any logs to power it up.

• Use pads, mats or felts under the objects that are placed on mantle shelf to avoid damage, stains and spills.
• If the fireplace is covered by the glass doors clean the glass with commercial glass cleaners. Use a lint free cloth or use an oil soap when cleaning the wood elements to maintain their shiny nature.
• By identifying the materials used to make the fireplace one can use the right cleaning products appropriate for that materials which makes fireplace to work better for longer periods.
• Keep the brass work clean by using a compatible brass cleaner to shine it up.
• When the ember bed is dark on one side replace the light bulbs.
• Do not use glass cleaner when cleaning the back of the glass, use only a mild soap and water for fireplace maintenance.
• Have an electric fireplace technician take a look at the unit so often to maintain the fire place in better working condition.
• The fan in the unit should be cleaned as it is designed to spread the electrically produced heat throughout the room.
• To properly maintain an electric fireplace make sure that its wires and other electric components are in good condition. If the wires are damaged, replace it before use.
• The fan in the unit should be cleaned as it is designed to spread the electrically produced heat throughout the room.

The above are the few useful tips for maintaining and cleaning electric fire place.

Heating Elements Used in Electric Heaters

Heating elements are used in electric heaters. It converts electrical energy in to heat through the process of Joule heating. Electric current passed through the element encounters resistance which results in the heating of the element. Given below are the different types of materials used in preparing the heating element:

Resistance Wire:
It may be wire or ribbon and straight or coiled. It is mainly used in items such as toasters, hair dryers and also in furnaces for industrial heating, floor heating, roof heating, pathway heating to melt snow, dryers etc. Most of these wires are prepared from Kanthal, Nichrome, Cupronickel.

Etched Foil:
These are produced with a subtractive photo etching process and these foils starts with a continuous sheet of metal foil and ends with a complex resistance pattern. These are made from the same materials which are used in making of resistance wires.

Heat Lamp:
It is an incandescent lamp which produces infrared radiations and it is generally used in radiant space heaters and food warmers. It is available in two forms, one is reflector lamp which is often tinted red to minimize the visible light produced and the other is tubular form which is always clear.

PTC Ceramic:
These materials have a highly nonlinear thermal response, so that it becomes extremely resistant above a composition dependent threshold temperature and this causes material to act as its own thermostat. Thin films of this materials are used in automotive rear window defrost heaters, and honeycomb shaped elements are used in expensive hair dryers and space heaters.

Tubular:
It is a fine coil of Nickel chrome wire in a ceramic insulating binder sealed inside a tube made of stainless steel or brass. They can be straight rods or can be curved.

Screen Printed Metal:
These are the ceramic tracks deposited on ceramic insulated metal. These can be used in kettles and other domestic appliances.

The above are the various heating elements used in electric heaters.

Different Types of Electric Space Heaters

Electric heaters are the devices which converts the electricity in to heat. Heating element in the electric heater is the electrical resistor and it works on the principle of Joule heating. Electric heaters differ in the way they deliver the heat to the environment, following are the types of electric space heaters:

Convection Heaters:
This heater operates by air convection currents circulating through the body of the appliance, and across its heating element. This heats up the air, causing it to increase in area. A convection heater may have either an electrical heater element, hot water coil, or steam coil.

Fan Heaters:
It contains an electric fan to speed up the airflow and this is also called as forced convection heater. This reduces the thermal resistance between heating element and the surroundings faster than passive convection, allowing heat to be transferred more quickly.

Radiative Heaters:
Heating element in these heaters is usually packaged inside a glass envelope and this element emits the infrared radiation that travels through air or space until it hits an absorbing surface, where it is partially converted to heat and partially reflected. This heat directly warms people and objects in the room, rather than warming the air. These are very useful in the places like garages and the basements.

Heat Pumps:
This uses an electrically driven compressor to operate a refrigeration cycle that extracts heat energy from the outdoor air and upgrades its temperature to a level high enough to use for space heating.

Storage Heating:
A storage heating system stores electricity which is available at night times and this electricity is stored in clay bricks which is released as heat during the day when required.

Domestic Electrical Underfloor Heating:
These systems are called as radiant heating systems. When the current flows through the conductive heating element, the material gets heated, then the heated material heats the flooring until it reaches the right temperature set by the floor thermostat. The flooring then heats the adjacent air, which circulates, heating other objects in the room by convection. This form of heating gives the most consistent room temperature from floor to ceiling compared to any other heating system.

The above are the various types of space heaters.