About Comfort Cove Heaters

• They are neatly located high on the wall, close to the ceiling, it resembles a picture molding.

• The front panel is perfectly smooth (no grooves) and seldom collects dust.

• Available in all lengths, from 3-feet to 11 feet.  Rarely does a room need more than one.

• If a room does need more than one, more handsome units can be added, to meet the heat loss.

• The very location of the unit makes them indestructible.

• You can place furniture and draperies wherever you want, without fear of "blockage".

For more information about the Comfort Cove Radiant Cove Heating Systems, visit their website.

Electric grills are becoming popular with the increasing number of restrictions against the use of gas or charcoal units in condos and apartments. All of Meco's grills are UL certified, fit into any standard 120-volt grounded plug, and are safe for outdoor cooking.

Deciding the size of a standby generator can make a person step back and take a look at how electricity will be used during an emergency situation. The biggest decision will be what essential and nonessential loads are.

Once you understand a few basic principals of electricity, like how much electricity is required for various equipment and their load characteristic, deciding on a generator will become much easier to understand.

In making a selection, a person must decide what electrical equipment is essential during emergency conditions. This list may include furnace or heaters, refrigerators, freezers, water pumps (both domestic and sump), food preparation appliances and lights. Nonessential equipment would include the water heater, clothes dryer, electric stove or oven and possibly the air conditioner.

One basic you must keep in mind when deciding on a generator is motor-driven electrical equipment requires three to fi ve times more electricity to start the motor than it does to run it once it’s started. This brief surge of electricity must be available just for a few seconds. If it isn't, the generator may shut itself down or the motor will just not start.

One way to get around this problem is to start the largest motor-driven appliance first and then add other equipment of lower wattage next.

When you’re sizing a generator, you select it by the wattage it will produce. Nearly all appliances will have a wattage listed on their name plate. If they don’t and only the amps and volts are listed, the product of these two equal the watts used by the unit. When cooking food, an electric fry pan, slow cooker or even a microwave are relatively low wattage appliances that can be used and don’t require much generator capacity.

On the other hand, a water heater requires a lot of power, 4,500 watts. If hot water is used sparingly, it will stay hot for several days without heating. However you must remember when you do use hot water, cold water replaces the hot water and will speed the cooling of the stored water.

A 1,500-watt portable electric heater will heat a 150- to 200-square foot room during zero degree weather. This size room can be heated easily by closing the room off and living in the room for the duration of the outage.

On the farm, sizing a generator is not as critical if a tractor-driven generator is used, unless there is a large motor load. Large motors require special consideration when sizing a generator. If large motors are not a concern, PTO-driven generators will usually run a farm without much concern for what is running at one time. Usually the biggest concern then becomes the cost of running the tractor for extended periods. When you run a tractor to produce electricity, you fast realize what a bargain electricity is.

Most inquiries about generator sizing come from people who say they just want to run some things in their house. This usually means they just want to plug them into a small generator. A good home-sized generator would be a 5,000-watt unit that provides both 120 volts and 240 volts. In most cases, this will provide adequate motor-starting ability and can run a number of selected appliances.

The chart above indicates the wattage requirements of typical electrical equipment. Totaling up the equipment that you wish to run at one time and allowing extra wattage for motor-driven equipment will help you determine the generator needed.

​To help stretch the capacity of a generator, a person can rotate the operation of equipment. Once a freezer has been run for a while, it can be unplugged and another appliance can be run for a period of time. Freezers will maintain their temperatures for a couple days if they are not opened. They lend themselves well to the type of appliances that can be rotated.