quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
My dampers are inside the vent with no handles. You need to remove the register reach down into the vent and adjust. Not sure if this is common or not. 1964 construction.

Wow. Why bother? Or do the registers themselves not have controls?

Our home has the levers pictured. It was built in 1967.

I have the the same thing as Skins2881 described but only in two of two of the upstairs bedrooms. House was built in 1993 and there are several in the basement as shown in the pictures. My guess is the two bedrooms may feed off the same run from the basement and the internal damper may be for balancing airflow between the bedrooms. I did not know they were even there until a couple years ago. One of the bedrooms was always cold and I found out the internal damper by accident when I was trying to clean out the area beneath the vent with a hose from vacuum cleaner. It was mostly closed and opening full fixed the problem.

“Half of fatal home space heater fires started because something was too close to the heater and ignited. Keep heaters and things that can burn at least three feet apart,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of communications. “Heating fires and the deaths they cause can usually be prevented with awareness and a few simple actions.”

The leading factor contributing to space heater fires in general was heating equipment too close to things that can burn, such as upholstered furniture, clothing, mattress, or bedding. Other leading factors contributing to home space heater fires were failure to clean, which is principally related to creosote build-up in chimneys, and leaving an operating space heater unattended.

As long as you are responsible it's totally fine. Same thing with owning a firearm.

quote:

Originally posted by SIG4EVA:
“Half of fatal home space heater fires started because something was too close to the heater and ignited. Keep heaters and things that can burn at least three feet apart,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of communications. “Heating fires and the deaths they cause can usually be prevented with awareness and a few simple actions.”

The leading factor contributing to space heater fires in general was heating equipment too close to things that can burn, such as upholstered furniture, clothing, mattress, or bedding. Other leading factors contributing to home space heater fires were failure to clean, which is principally related to creosote build-up in chimneys, and leaving an operating space heater unattended.

As long as you are responsible it's totally fine. Same thing with owning a firearm.

Sure. Since half were started by people or animals putting flammable objects near them we can throw out all the electrical fires that happened.

During this time of the year I see multiple near fires EVERY WEEK. You can say they are safe all you want. I would never allow someone I cared about have one in their home.

The gun comparison is BS. A guns purpose is to fire a projectile out of the front of it. It's a very well known fact that you have a high chance of death if you are on the business end of it when fired. A space heaters purpose is supplemental heat, it is not well known that they can cause death.

According to this article the CDC attributed 545 deaths in 2012 to guns.

Two paragraphs down from the one you quoted was this - "In 2007, U.S. fire departments responded to 66,400 home structure fires that involved heating equipment. These fires killed 580 people, injured another 1,850, and were responsible for $608 million in direct property damage."

So 545 accidental deaths from guns, 580 from heating equipment. I guess your heater is only slightly more dangerous than your gun. Anecdotally I know many people who have lost their homes to fires caused by space heaters, I know one person who shot them self and one friend of a friend who shot himself.

You decide to take the risk, that's on you. All I ask is that you read some stuff on the internet maybe watch a newscast or two showing aftermath of a home. If you've educated yourself on the risks and you think the reward is worth it, go for it. I rather pay an HVAC tech or insulator to fix the problem than use a potentially deadly bandaid fix.

Lastly the information I posted referring to the space heaters taking 80% (1500w) of a circuits capacity (1800w). How many people do you think are aware of that? How many do you think have mapped out the circuits they use them on and know all loads on that circuit? How many do you think have the measuring equipment and know how to use it to test the loads on those circuits? How many people have electrical equipment in perfect shape? How do you account for manufacturers defects? Last winter I had a 1500w (12.5 amp) heater a customer bought brand new from Costco draw 3264w (27.2 amps), that's over double the rated wattage. This heater was a well known brand from a reputable store, one of those radiant reflector dish things.

You roll the dice, I'm sure as hell not. If I was somehow forced to use one after exhausting all options with HVAC CO and insulation, then I would run a dedicated circuit. If they are used on dedicated circuit the risk drops considerably, leaving only human error and manufacturers defects.