Baseboard Heaters: 110 V and 220 V

Guest; if your heater is 1000 watts at 220 volts, yes you can run it on 110 volts, yes it would be safe! but now your heater is a 250 watt heater, it goes to the square. double the voltage will double the current ,thus double times double=4. 250 x 4 = 1000. perry

Higher voltage devices of the same wattage use electricity more efficiently by pulling less current and sustaining less line loss.

_{"Higher voltage devices of the same wattage use electricity more efficiently by pulling less current and sustaining less line loss."}

Not enough energy difference to bother considering though. Remember that although your Ir loses would be less PER WIRE at 220V, you will have 2 current carrying conductors, as opposed to ne on the 110V circuit. The difference is almost immeasurable.

If your heater can be connected both ways, then there is no realistic difference. Do what is easiest. But the point this guest made has some merit in that the because current is lower at 220V, it may affect your circuit loading. So for instance if it were a 1500W heater, at 110V that is 13.6A, exceeding the limit of a 15A circuit breaker's capacity of 12A. So you would NOT be able to plug it in to a 110V outlet LEGALLY. But at 220V, it is only 6.7A, so you would even have extra capacity on a 220V 15A circuit to run some other small load.

You pay for current, so its cheaper to run at higher voltage and lower current.

You pay for current? Where do you live?

I and everyone I know of pays for kWh. That does not change with voltage.

Your voltage coming into your house is constant. The variable in the equation is current. So therefore, the more current you draw, the more your bill is.

Do you have variable voltage in California

T-man; way off, way off constant voltage times current = watts! thus the follows,

110v x 10a = 1100 watts v times a =w in 1 hour= watt hours or 1.1 kwh x 6 cents
220v x 5a = 1100 watts v times a =w in 1 hour= watt hours or 1.1 kwh x 6 cents

V for volts A for amps W for watts perry

T-Man, at the risk of sounding insulting, the first thing that comes to mind reading your posts is "Better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

Residential electric service in the U.S. is generally two-110V lines coming into the service entrance, one or the other is used to power 110V items, and both are used to power 220V items. So the simple answer to your question about variable voltage is "We have two voltages available, not variable". An item drawing 1KW is going to cost you the same to use whether it is running on 220V, or at twice the current at 110V. You are charged for POWER, not current.

Tom