Living in an old farmhouse that's hard to heat, furnace quit this fall so I'm using a heat pump, space heater and electric dryer to keep the pipes/me from freezing.
I'd like to use a 5000 watt 240v garage heater and forget about the dryer. I have a 50 amp 240v range outlet that isn't used and want to know if I can wire a heater like that to the appropriate plug. It's in a central location in my home and would certainly be more effective than a dryer.
If you have any suggestions on the type of heater I should/could do this with or how to do it I would really appreciate it.
Thank you!
JP
Best Answer
Your concept makes perfect sense, and electric heaters are cheap. For instance a 2000W Cadet heater is $50. Of course that's made for permanent installation, not that that's prevented me from installing one in an afternoon and then uninstalling it the next day. You just have to use correct, legal techniques. The accessories to install electric heat - breakers and wiring - aren't expensive either.
Paying for the electricity, on the other hand...
Anyway, if you want the heater to be cord-and-plug connectd, just change the receptacle to a NEMA 14-30 or 6-30, and put same plug on the heater, and change the breaker to 30A. Breakers are $9. You can also just hardwire the heater, but still change the breaker to 30A.