Is it a miracle or a mirage? While Heat Surge’s Miracle Heater is not new to the market, this electric fireplace, also known as the Amish Heater, is garnering attention once again this winter. Unfortunately it is an excellent example of ‘buyer beware’!
As usual, the American consumer needs to take what they read with a grain of salt. While the Miracle heater’s manufacturer, Heat Surge, is lavishes praise on its Amish Heater, the only thing lavish about this heater is its sales pitch.
Heat Surge makes several impressive-sounding claims about their ‘Miracle Heater’. However, while most of their information is technically correct, its purpose is to mislead the consumer into believing the Miracle Heater is something it is not.
– Their fireplace is the best and easiest way to save money on your gas bills
– The Miracle Heater only uses as much energy as a standard coffee maker
– The Miracle Heater produces an amazing 5,110 BTU’s
– Everyone is getting them to enjoy a real fire’s ambiance without the mess
With high energy costs, Heat Surge’s most enticing statement is their suggestion you can save big money on your heating bills. While this is potentially possible (if you turn your furnace off), you must go beyond the home page to learn how you are going to save money.
What Heat Surge is really selling is a decorative electric space heater. Their money-saving solution is for you to heat only one room at a time. In other words, use the Miracle Heater for zone heating.
The principle behind zone heating is this: You heat only the room you are in. They prove their point by making the following statement on their ‘Save Money’ page:
If you turn down your thermostat 1 degree for 8 hours, you can save up to 1% of your monthly heat bill. If you turn it down 5 degrees for 24 hours, you can up to 15% for your daily heat costs.
In reality, these claims only sound impressive. For example, if your monthly heating bill is $200 and you save 1%, you save $2 a month. Take that same monthly heating bill and project what 15% a day would save you, a whopping $30.
While $30 sounds interesting, take a closer look. Zone heating means you heat only the room you are in. Suppose you normally keep your thermostat at 65 degrees. You buy the Miracle Heater and decide to ‘save money’ so you turn your thermostat down to 60 degrees. Using the Miracle Heater, you continue to keep one room of your house comfortable.
How much are you saving now? The Washington State University Extension Energy Program has said, “The only way to save money with any electric space heater is to turn off all the heat in your house and only use the space heater.” Frozen pipes, frozen food, and frozen extremities aside, who owns a house but lives in just one room?
The next logical question is: What does it cost to operate the Miracle Heater? Here again we have a misleading statement. Heat Surge says their Miracle Heater uses the energy of a standard coffee maker.
That sounds great! For the price of a pot of coffee I can heat one room of my house. Whoa! Not true! All this really means is the Miracle Heater uses 1500 watts. While some coffee pots do use 1500 watts, most use 900 to 1200 watts. In addition, while a coffee maker is going to use a few minutes of power, the Miracle Heater continues to use 1500 watts as long as you have it plugged in.
Thus, while the Miracle Heater may use the same amount of energy as your coffee maker, for the few minutes you are making coffee, the Miracle Heater continues to use energy long after your coffee has gone cold.
Take this a step further. A pot of coffee, on average, costs you less than $.50 per month. However, running a 1500 watt space heater for 12 hours per day would cost you roughly $35 a month.
Heat Surge’s other impressive but misleading claim is that the Miracle Heater produces an amazing 5,110 BTUs. The only thing amazing about this claim is that Heat Surge actually tried to make it sound amazing. Obviously they assume most consumers do not know any 1500 watt electric space heater will produce 5,110 BTUs.
Furthermore, while they claim everyone is buying the heater, let us hope they are wrong. After all, for a mere $337 you can have a fake fire with an oak Amish surround. However, for about $250 less, you can purchase a basic space heater and enjoy the same heat output.
Worst of all, when you compare the $35 monthly cost for running a space heater for 12 hours in one room with the $30 monthly savings you gained by turning your furnace down 5 degrees you can see the real advantage of a Miracle Heater. You can turn your comfortable home into an ice box while creating true family togetherness in the one comfortable room in your house, and all this for the low cost of $5 per month!
