Space Heater Question – Is 1,500 watts 1,500 watts?

We have one room in our old house that’s just best heated by a space heater the few weeks of the years it’s needed.
We had an oil filled radiator type for safety around our kids. And I totally realize that they’re all (120v) 1,500 watts, and essentially 100% of that is released as heat.
BUT! We were given a Vornado space heater, and I swear it works better. But it’s still the same 1,500 watts! Is it possible it works better because there’s a higher delta in the temp of the heat it gives off?
Or is 1,500 watts, 1,500 watts no matter how you spin it?
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Replies
I bet if you plugged them into a power meter you would see that while the vornado is putting out 1500w continually the oil heater is not. I think it is probably more to due with the fan then the temp differential as it is more effectively heating the air in the space, and not just the air and objects near it as the oil heater is.
Understand that portable space heaters do kill people every year and are almost never give the clear space required in the owner’s manual.
The oil filled verity are the safest of the lot.
Any resistance heater that pulls 1500 watts will produce the same number of BTUs.
Glowing red hot wires make some of the BTUs as radiant heat that warms people and surfaces directly. The number of BTU remains unchanged it is only difference is how they are transferred.
The smart move is to get an electric base board heater installed. This is much safer as it is hard wired to a dedicated circuit and the clear space requirement are much smaller.
Walta
You could easily meter it if you have the equipment. There are several ways to do this: since a heater like this is a resistive load, you can use a simple volt/amp meter. Measure the current drawn by the heater while it's running, which will give you a reading in amps (note that you need to measure the current in ONLY ONE of the TWO wires in the cord if using a clamp-type meter here). Now measure the voltage at the receptacle, again while the heater is running. Multiply the two together. If you measure 118v and 12.7 amps, that would be 1,498.6 watts, for example.
My guess is both heaters are doing what they should though, but the oil filled unit is providing a more diffuse heat, while the Vornado is a more focused/directed heat. The end result will be that the Vornado unit will feel "warmer", but that's really only because most of it's output energy is concentrated in the "beam" from the heater (assuming a fan-type or parabolic-type heater here). The oil filled heater is radiating fairly equally in all directions, so it won't feel as warm, but that's just because it's output energy is distributed over a larger area. Both heaters are likely actually putting out the same amount of energy here.
Walta is right too: the oil filled heaters tend to be safest for a variety of reasons.
Bill