Don't Envy Me for My Envi Electric Heater

The Envi heater, centrally mounted at the bottom level of our home.
Sure, it puts out heat, but so does our toaster.

This is a short review on the Envi electric heater, but first, I cant' help but provide a quick commentary on the state of our nation's energy infrastructure and the ridiculous, economic ironies it operates within and how it affects our pocketbooks.  No "smart grid" will be able to fix this fundamental flaw.

To generate electricity, we burn coal and oil in order to boil water that builds enough pressure to spin generator turbines that produce electricity that eventually is drawn to our home to operate our countless appliances to serve our needs, including generating heat to keep us warm.  Sound efficient?  Times that by 100 million homes.  You'd think there'd be a more efficient way we all could heat our homes in the 21st century.

Natural gas eliminates a lot of these physio/logistical inefficiencies since we capture the heat by burning it where it is needed and we don't lose energy by converting the energy into something else first (electricity) then convert it back into heat in order to stay warm those cold winter nights.  Using more natural gas is inherently much more efficient because of this incomparable advantage over electricity where heat is generated on demand as heat into heat and not first converted into electricity, to heat our homes.  That said, natural gas needs almost as much infrastructure as electricity to deliver its energy to the masses through millions of feet of pipes, containers, valves, etc.

Just a thought, now I'm really digressing from a boring product interview:  If only we could buy something at the supermarket with our food -- a "Box of Heat" which only we would buy as needed or in bulk like at Costco's, as we choose, eliminating the need of building and maintaining a separate distribution system and infrastructure.  I guess the closest thing out there is kerosene or propane tanks -- if only they weren't so heavy and dangerous (and more efficient).  Something that is completely safe to transport that weighed about the same as a gallon of milk that could heat a home for a couple of weeks.  Imagine, supermarket priced competition to heat our homes.

Still, lugging the "Box of Heat" to the house and inserting it into the centralized home heating unit still wouldn't be as convenient as just plugging a heater to an electric outlet and just turning a dial -- kind of like the many portable electric heaters available on the market today.  (Well, there's Culligan for water delivery, so why not a "Box of Heat" delivery service, then?  Since there would be no infrastructure needed to maintain and you were willing to pay a convenience fee for delivery, the cost of the "Box of Heat" would still deliver heat to consumers at much lower prices.  Okay, back to the product review....)  One of the electric heaters you may choose to look into is the Envi electric heater, which is sold online and advertises heavily in magazines, like "Popular Science" and the web.  It's a radiator with no moving parts, which ensures that most of the electricity it consumes goes to producing a slow and steady heat.  I like that efficiency model, it makes sense.

.... but I say "slow and steady heat", because without a fan to circulate the heat, it takes a long time to heat up an area compared to a normal space heater with a fan.  You basically need to keep it on most of the time you want a room kept warm, but without a thermostat, the cryptic control dial up top doesn't make it very practical if you leave it unattended, like to go to sleep, or if you have anything more useful to do with your time than stare at your new wall-mounted heater.  More than once I walked into the room the Envi was heating and the room was sweltering hot, so hot I had to open a window.  So much for the money saved in less moving parts.

You can mount the Envi heater easily enough on a wall, but the cord dangles, even when using the clips at the bottom that are supposed to hold the power cord, you almost have to fold the cord and snake it awkwardly to fit it underneath.  Then, it's hard to see the clips to fasten the cord in the clips to begin with.  It doesn't detract and hide the power cord well -- not ideal if little kids are around, who will inevitably pull the cord out and be exposed to a bare electric plug because they pulled the cord out of the socket.

Speaking of children around the heater, there is a single on/off button in the top front right side with a red LED light, inviting kids to push it on and off.  Since it's not better hidden up top like the dial and it's more clear what its function is than the dial, they're bound to notice it sooner or later.  The heater may be able to be mounted on any wall, low and out of sight, but it lacks basic tamper-proof measures for children.  You think you had shut the heater off because it's a warm day?  Think again!  More than once, we found the Envi heater on, pumping out heat, while the A/C was running, trying to keep our home cool.  In South Dakota, it's not atypical for the weather to vary 60 degrees in a single day, just in case you're wondering.

It all makes as much sense as our country's energy infrastructure, or buying a heater without a thermostat.  In short, the Envi heater is good for one thing -- augmenting heating your home on the coldest nights in that room that never seems to get enough heat.  Instead of installing a heater in that area, however, might I suggest you put in better insulation, or use that cooler room as your wine cellar/workout room?