If efficiency for electric devices is defined as how well it converts electric power into the desired effect, the rest usually being heat, aren’t electric heaters 100% efficient? If i had a 99% efficient heater, what undesired form of energy would the 1% go to? I see a lot of electric heaters being marketed as “way more efficient than others”.
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There are losses in electric heating–ohmic losses in wires outside the area you are trying to heat, generation of the electricity at the power plant, some energy is converted to visible light, etc.
However, from an energy point of view you are pretty much correct that electric heating is almost 100% efficient. It is actually rather easy to convert energy into heat which is usually the waste energy that makes other conversions NOT 100% efficient.
When talking about efficiency of heating we are usually looking at the energy cost to provide a change in temperature. In this case, electric heaters are not very efficient since the same change in temperature can usually be done cheaper through other means like heat pumps and even gas furnaces (which are not 100% efficient in converting their fuel energy into heat).
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