How much heat?

[Geoff_S]

Whilst pondering things in general as I polished a bit of wood today in the chill, I just wondered whether my 2000W dust extractor generated as much heat as
my 2000W fan heater.The thermometer certainly started rising a bit quicker when I started.

 

[ED65]

One would hope it's not quite as bad as incandescent light bulbs, which are actually better heaters than light sources!

 

[thetyreman]

One would hope it's not quite as bad as incandescent light bulbs, which are actually better heaters than light sources!

indeed, I've had one on in my garage and it's like a little heater on its own.

 

[MikeG.]

Just walking around being moderately active, an adult gives off approx 1000W. As to your question........no. The heater is almost 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat, whereas the extractor expends a lot of its energy making noise.

If you get cold in your workshop, try ripping a length of timber by hand. You'll soon be warm.

 

[Brandlin]

The heater is almost 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat, whereas the extractor expends a lot of its energy making noise.

I'd like to hope a significant portion of the energy consumption of the extractor is used to suck. That's what it's there for.

 

[MikeG.]

I didn't mention the sucking, because the physics of that is beyond me. The friction of the moving air produces heat. The compression of air releases heat. The thermal mass of the collected dust holds heat. The exhaust of the vacuum may be removing heat from the room, if it vents externally. That and more. So, too many factors for me..........so I ignored it!

 

[MarkDennehy]

Alternatively, as measured by the little digital thermometer/humidity meter in the shed...

3.5C:

17.7C:

Only took 30 minutes or so.


....and a pint or so of sweat, a half-cc of blood from a minor whoopsie and a few hundred calories. Gotta love scrub planes

 

[Geoff_S]

Alternatively, as measured by the little digital thermometer/humidity meter in the shed...

3.5C:

17.7C:

Only took 30 minutes or so.


....and a pint or so of sweat, a half-cc of blood from a minor whoopsie and a few hundred calories. Gotta love scrub planes

Just looking at that has worn me out :shock:

 

[John Brown]

I think it pretty much all ends up as heat. Maybe some of it takes a while, and some ends up outside your workshop. Unless the dust and chippings end up higher than they started, in which case they have acquired potential energy.

 

[NickN]

The dessicant dehumidifier in my shed which normally sits fairly dormant works as a great heater - but it's a vicious circle, the more I pant, toil and sweat, the more humidity it's extracting and the more heat it gives out... :lol:

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Just walking around being moderately active, an adult gives off approx 1000W.

Extra zero here I think. More like 100W or so. 1000W is a something like 20kcal per day. Even polar explorers don't lose half that. 100W is about the maximum sustained work output for a normal human.

I imagine you can assume that the energy used by the heater, incandescent bulb, extractor and human all pretty much end up as heat. Most of the other outputs - light, noise etc are mostly contained by the building (though my neighbours might argue otherwise ), so wind up as heat eventually too.

An interesting aside just occurred to me. 1kWhr is thus about 10 man hours of work. £75 at minimum wage. Or 13 1/2 pence for the electricity. No wonder hand working is out of fashion.

 

[bugbear]

An interesting aside just occurred to me. 1kWhr is thus about 10 man hours of work. £75 at minimum wage. Or 13 1/2 pence for the electricity. No wonder hand working is out of fashion.

It's why hand tools HAVE to be fully optimised for the task. With 1500W or more, power tools can afford to be inefficient.

Hence e.g. the tremendous range of bill hooks and reap hooks.

BugBear

 

[MarkDennehy]

Well, that was a new spin on it!