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These oil-filled radiator-type heaters are a real bargain! (and i don't use that word often, or lightly). These things are definite cost-cutters! I have lowered my electric bill for heating from $90 per month, to a varying degree of $30 TO $40 per month, and the $40 bill occurs only when it's especially cold outside. This item runs on 110 Volt wall socket current (unlike the ELECTRICITY-MUNCHING 220 Volt unit in the ceiling, which is actually the A/C unit being used as a heat pump, which is NOT it's intended use, even though it can perform that function, but is SO INEFFICIENT while doing so). I use one of these to keep an entire 800 square foot, 1 bedroom apartment warm-as-needed in the winter, at over 4,000 feet in elevation in northern Arizona. Granted, we don't have winters here like back in my state of origin, Wisconsin. But, when it does get cold here, all i do is crank this baby up to 3/4's of maximum to warm it up, and then lower it to about 50% to maintain the desired temperature, and my electric bill still doesn't reach $50 per month! Quite a break from the old $90 per month! It is NOT recommended that you use a fan with this unit, as blowing air across it messes with the built-in thermostat, but at the coldest times, i do use a small 9 inch fan, set on the lowest speed, either drawing from in front of it, or blowing just over the top of it from behind (you'll find that if you do point a fan directly at it--i did, being me, i had to test it...lol--it will cause so much "SNAPPIN', CRACKLIN' & POPPIN'" that you wouldn't want to continue that VERY noisy way anyway (the internal oil gets cooled too fast as it rises, by the air moving over it from a direct blast from even a small fan, causing it to literally "snap, crackle & pop" when the cooler oil comes back in contact with the hotter oil inside...try it for a few minutes when you get this, you won't hurt it, and you'll see what i mean. It also will snap crackle & pop a bit when it's new out-of-the-box, but this goes away in a few minutes). With a small fan either drawing from the front, from about 2 feet away, or blowing just over the top of it, from about 2 feet behind, you'll have more heat than you know what to do with. And actually, once the room is warmed (and in my case, when all 800 square feet of my 1 bedroom apartment is warmed), it will keep it warm & toasty (sometimes too warm & toasty) all by itself, without any air-flow from a fan. My neighbor, who is our maintenance man at our apartment complex, who lives in a 2 bedroom, 1,250 square foot apartment, introduced me to these on a maintenance call. He uses 2 of these, only because his apartment is a 2 bedroom, with about 55% more square footage than mine. He said he has to be careful not to leave the thermostat set very high, or he "cooks" his family. But, the thing that really got my attention when we talked about these, was that his electric bill went from $120 per month using his A/C unit as a heat pump, to NO MORE THAN $70 per month with two of these, and he said even at the coldest times, he keeps his set at no more than 50%, and uses no fan! Take my word for it folks, if you're looking to save money on your heating bill, whether you have electric-generated heat, or gas-generated heat, or whatever-generated heat, these little helpers WILL save you money! Bank on it! I don't use my heat pump AT ALL anymore! Neither does the maintenance man. And the cost of one unit, for a 1 bedroom apartment, will be recouped in about one month's saving on your electric bill! Same math works for 2 of these units for a 2 bedroom apartment. A great buy! And WAY more efficient than either the ceramic or coil-type forced-air electric heaters. The only thing is, that they don't heat as fast as those other forced-air units, but once they are warmed up, the heat is constant, AND CHEAP!!The last advice i'll give you is this...BUY THIS IN THE SUMMER MONTHS! I bought mine last July (i waited 'til now to write my review, because i wanted to see exactly how well it performed), because at the time, i paid only $34.99, with FREE Super-Saver shipping, when i bought this in July of 2011! (out of season). During the winter months, when demand for these is up (in season), they go way up in price, but are still worth it at $48.94 (the advertised price as of the time of this review).
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