glossary

Amps (Ampere)
The amount of current flowing through the wire.
Note: Amps and volts are not the same – voltage is pressure behind the current, the higher the pressure the higher the potential current.
Example: Think water out of a standard garden hose, it has a nice constant flow of water; it will shoot out a few inches. That's a low flow (current flow) due to low water pressure (voltage pressure like 120 volts)
Now a fire hose, on the other hand, has a higher flow due to a much higher water pressure.

AWG (American Wire Gauge)
This is a standardized electrical wire gauge system that we use in the US for the diameters of round wire.
0 AWG is a very large wire
12 & 14 AWG are common wires used in your home
16 AWG is used on most table lamps
30 AWG is Very small

Back Box (for wall heaters)
This is a metal mounting box that's enclosed on 5 sides. The back box is mounted in the wall first then the rest of the heater is mounted inside the back box. Then the front grille covers box and the heater components.

Baseboard Heater – is a long and narrow heater without a fan. It's mounted on the floor like baseboard molding. Baseboard heaters are convection heaters only wider, warm air rises out the top and cold air is entrained through the bottom opening. It's a good idea to place them on the outside or cold wall near or below a window.

Bathroom Heaters – come in many styles and mounting configurations like, wall, ceiling, baseboard, infrared bulb heaters. The all work for different reasons. Fan forced wall & ceiling heaters heat very quickly. Baseboard heaters are silent, slow and steady room heaters. Bulb heaters put out an infrared heat that heats people and objects below the bulbs, not the air. Bulb heaters are only good as a secondary heater.

British Thermal Unit (BTU)
The amount of energy required to heat one pound of water by 1°F.
In North America, the term "BTU" is used to describe the heat value (energy content) of fuels, and also to describe the power of heating and cooling systems.

Built-in Thermostat
A thermostat is a device for regulating the temperature of a heating system so that the room's temperature is maintained near a desired set point temperature. A built-in thermostat is mounted inside the heater and measures the return air temperature. When the room is cooler than the desired temperature the heater starts up, when the room is up to temperature the heater shuts off.

A heat lamp is an incandescent light bulb that is used for the main purpose of creating infrared heat. Heat lamps are commonly used in shower and bathrooms to warm bathers, not the room. It's a great secondary heater for short periods of time.

Electric Ceiling Heater - What we call an electric ceiling heater is a fan forced heater mounted in or on the ceiling. Most ceiling heaters used in homes or office use a wall mounted thermostat for two reasons - ease of accessibility (no step ladders) to change the room temperature and wall thermostat are mounted lower on the wall get a more accurate room temperature reading.

CFM – (Cubic Feet per Minute)
A unit of measurement of the flow of a gas or liquid that indicates how much volume in cubic feet pass by a stationary point in one minute.
All you need to know is CFM is just a way of letting you know how much air is passing through the heater. More isn't always better, the higher the CFM the loader the air noise.

Circuit breaker
A circuit breaker is an automatically-operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overload or short circuit. Its basic function is to detect a fault condition and, by interrupting continuity, to immediately discontinue electrical flow. Unlike a fuse, which operates once and then has to be replaced, a circuit breaker can be reset to resume normal operation.

Commercial and Industrial Electric Heaters – Are heavy duty heaters with thicker gauge steel grilles and heating elements. This type of heater is designed to operate under higher work loads for a longer period of time. For example a commercial electric ceiling heater located in a bank vestibule in Minnesota is going to work non stop in the winter. This heater needs to heat this space even though the doors are going to be opening every few minutes. An industrial electric unit heater located in a warehouse by the overhead truck doors is going to be running non stop. Large crates bump into the heaters so it needs a heavy duty metal casing. Commercial & Industrial grade heaters can come in a large range is voltages like 120v 208v 1 phase or 3 Phase 240v 1 phase or 3 Phase 277v 1 phase 480v 1 phase or 3 Phase 600v 3 Phase

Convection Heater
In a convection heater, the element heats the air next to it by convection. Hot air is less dense than cool air, so it rises due to buoyancy, allowing more cool air to flow in to take its place. This sets up a constant current of hot air that leaves the appliance through vent holes and heats up the surrounding space. They are ideally suited for heating a closed space. They operate silently and have a lower risk of ignition hazard in the event that they make unintended contact with furnishings compared to radiant electric heaters. This is a good choice for long periods of time or if left unattended. They are very safe heaters and there is a very low chance of getting burned.

CSA (Canadian Standard Association)
The Canadian Standards Association, also known as the CSA, is a not-for-profit Standards organization with the stated aim of developing standards for use in 57 different areas of specialization. CSA also provides advisory services, training materials and print and electronic published standard documents.

dB (Decibel)
The decibel is widely known as a measure of sound pressure level, but is also used for a wide variety of other measurements in science and engineering (particularly acoustics, electronics, and control theory) and other disciplines. In other words it's used as a sound rating system, higher the number the loader the noise.

Electric heating
Electric heating is any process in which electrical energy is converted to heat. Common applications include heating of buildings, cooking, and industrial processes. An electric heater is an electrical appliance that converts electrical energy into heat. The heating element inside every electric heater is simply an electrical resistor, and works on the principle of Joule heating: an electric current through a resistor converts electrical energy into heat energy.

Fan Forced Heaters
A fan forced heater is a form of convection heat that includes an electric fan to speed up the airflow. This reduces the thermal resistance between the heating element and the surroundings faster than passive convection, allowing heat to be transferred more quickly. They operate with considerable noise caused by the fan. This type of heater is a good choice for quick heating.

Heating Element
A heating element converts electricity into heat through the process of Joule heating. Electric current through the element encounters resistance, resulting in heating of the element. Most heating elements use Nichrome 80/20 (80% nickel, 20% chromium) wire, ribbon, or strip.

Infrared Radiant Heater
An infrared Radiant heater is a body with a higher temperature which transfers energy to a body with a lower temperature through electromagnetic radiation. This type of heat doesn't use water or air to transfer heat. Unlike convection or fan forced convection which heats the air which in turn heats the room, Infrared heats the objects like chairs, walls, floors, people, etc, then the objects warm up the air which warms up the room. This form of heat is great for spot heating like a French Fry warmer. It only heats what's in front of the heating element, no wasted heat rise up to the ceiling or second floor.

Low Voltage
In the HVAC vocabulary Low Voltage usually means 24 volt control wires from the heater to a low voltage wall thermostat. The wire is very small and much cheaper for longer runs. Most of our wall heater do not use low voltage thermostat or wires because of the added cost of the transformer. A transformer is a device that drops 120 or 240 volts down to 24 volts, the transformer isn't cost effective in short runs like a wall or ceiling heater.

Office Heaters
We call office heaters under desk heaters or radiant panel heaters. It's just enough heat to take the chill off without heating up the entire room. It's a standard plug in 120v heater with low amps so it doesn't trip the circuit breaker when you turn on your computer & printer.

Phase (Single & Three Phase)
Refers to the number of leads that supply power to an appliance. Most homes are single phase, meaning only two leads supply power to the appliance. Commercial or industrial applications are commonly three phase, with three electrical leads supplying power.

Radiant Floor Heat
There are three types of radiant floor heat: radiant air floors (air is the heat-carrying medium); electric radiant floors; and hot water (hydronic) radiant floors. All three types can be further subdivided by the type of installation: those that make use of the large thermal mass of a concrete slab floor or lightweight concrete over a wooden sub floor (these are called "wet installations"); and those in which the installer "sandwiches" the radiant floor tubing between two layers of plywood or attaches the tubing under the finished floor or sub floor ("dry installations").

Electric Shop Heaters
We selected heavy duty fan forced space heaters that run on 240 volts. Most electric shop heaters start at 3-4 kilowatts. We have portable and electric unit heater, you can use infrared spot heaters for table work but we feel fan forced heaters heat the room better.

Sones
The sone was proposed as a unit of perceived loudness by Stanley Smith Stevens in 1936. In acoustics, loudness is the subjective perception of sound pressure. Sones are used mostly on the sound ratings on bathroom fans.

Tamper Resistant Wall Heater
It works like a standard wall heater but the control knob on the built-in thermostat is hidden behind the front grille. To adjust the thermostat you need a thin flat head screw driver, a bit larger than an eye glasses screw driver. When do you need this thermostat option? Electric heaters in high traffic areas like commercial buildings vestibule. If someone turns the heater all the way up on Friday night by Monday morning vestibule will feel like a sauna. This feature will pay for itself very quickly.

Tankless Water Heaters
Tankless water heaters, also called instantaneous, continuous flow, inline, flash, on-demand or instant-on water heaters. These water heaters instantly heat water as it flows through the device, and do not retain any water internally except for what is in the heat exchanger coil.
The main advantages of tankless water heaters are a continuous flow of hot water and energy savings (as compared to a limited flow of continuously heating hot water from conventional tank water heaters).

Thermal Insulation
Thermal insulation in buildings is an important factor to achieving thermal comfort for its occupants. Insulation reduces unwanted heat loss or gain and can decrease the energy demands of heating and cooling systems. It does not necessarily deal with issues of adequate ventilation and may or may not affect the level of sound insulation. In a narrow sense insulation can just refer to the insulation materials employed to slow heat loss, but it can also involve a range of designs and techniques to address the main modes of heat transfer - conduction, radiation and convection materials.
The effectiveness of insulation is commonly evaluated by its R-value. However, an R-value does not take into account the quality of construction or local environmental factors for each building. Construction quality issues include inadequate vapor barriers, and problems with draft-proofing. In addition, the properties and density of the insulation material itself is critical.

A thermostat is a device for regulating the temperature of a system so that the room's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint. The thermostat does this by switching heating or cooling devices on or off, or regulating the flow of a heat transfer fluid as needed, to maintain the correct temperature.

It's a compact fan forced electric heater that mounts below cabinets. Most kitchens cover every wall with cabinets, so they designed a heater to fit in a 4” high space. The phrase kick and toe space describe the heater location under the cabinet. Most of the heaters and controlled with a built-in thermostat which it reads the intake air temperature.

Electric Towel Rail Warmer
It's a heated metal rail or bar for hanging your towel in a bathroom or spa. Most on them work with an On-Off switch and operate with a built-in thermostat to hold a pre-set temperature (130ºF- 170ºF).

Unit Heater
A unit heater is a fan forced heater which can be powered by (electric, gas or water). Its fan pulls air from the back and blows the air across the heating element then it exits out the front. This works just like a standard electric space heater, except for a few small factors. Unit heaters mount to the wall or ceiling, heavy duty construction with higher than average heating capacity and it doesn't come with a cord and plug. Used to heat garages, shops, & other rooms were sound isn't a problem. It's not quiet or pretty but its one of the most common heaters for larger room.

Volt (Voltage)
The unit of electrical potential. 120 volts or 240v is the amount of potential energy.
120 volts has the potential to put out 1,500 watts at 12.5 amps. Or 5,120 BTU's
240 volts has the potential to put out 3,000 watts at 12.5 amps. Or 10,239 BTU's
In electric heating term the greater your voltage (potential energy) the greater your heating output
Note: Amps and volts are not the same – voltage is pressure behind the current, the higher the pressure the higher the potential current
Example: Think water out of standard garden hose, it has a nice constant flow of water; it will shoot out a few inches. We have a low flow (current flow) due to low water pressure (voltage pressure like 120 volts)
Now a fire hose on the other hand has a higher flow due to a much higher water pressure