Shrubs said: "I did not mention refraction at any point. Or perhaps you just don't know the difference between reflection and refraction." (Lermer) I had assumed your were talking about refraction and not reflection, so out of politeness I thought to correct you. Definition of "refraction": http://squ1.org/wiki/Light_Behaviour "Refraction is an effect that occurs between transparent materials of different densities, such as air and glass. The bending evident in refraction is a physical representation of the longer time it takes light to move through the denser of the two materials, and it is dependent on the angle that the light strikes the boundary." (Lermer) Light passing through glass would be refracted, as it's angle is changed. This is the first I've heard about glass reflecting light. Please show a reference for the alleged reflective properties of glass. In any event, I thought we were talking about how much light (and what spectrum) makes it through the glass, not how much is reflected from the glass to the aluminum above the bulb. I ask again for a reference showing that the light losses claimed by glass manufacturers are not true losses, because of alleged reflection or refraction. (Shrubs) I did write you a paragraph about the materials that are used (in UL approved fittings) for metal halide lamp shields, but you are still rattling on about glass. (Lermer) I just called Sunlight Supply, the biggest manufacturer of vented hoods w/glass. UL does not require any special type of glass, other than that it be tempered. Even with the glass types you mentioned, there was radical drop off in light transmission past 400nm with some, 350 nm with Borosilicate. As I have pointed out, the Violet, UV-A and UV-B spectrums are important for plant growth. You didn't respond to those points, except to "poke fun". (Shrubs) And what is all this stuff about Bouguer's law (note the correct spelling)? You clearly have no clue what it means. It has nothing to do with the wavelength of the light,... (Lermer)Perhaps we are talking about different laws, but googling "Bouger's law" I get lots of hits in the scientific literature. Including this one (ibid.): "Absorption by a transparent or translucent filter varies with wavelength and filter thickness. Bouger's law states the logarithmic relationship between internal transmission at a given wavelength and thickness."

Kithenaid and Amana are both owned and manufactured by Whirlpool Corp. (as are Maytag, Jenn-Air, Admiral, Roper, some Kenmores, everything sold at Lowes or Costco, and several other brands, so the quality should be identical amongst those brand names. Some of their older models still use the design they inherited when Whirlpool bought Maytag a couple of years ago, whereas others use the Whirlpool-based design (identifyable by their smaller icemakers and dual paddles for ice and water dispensing). Best reason not to get a KA is that there's often a comparable Whirlpool, Kenmore, (or more recently Maytag-) branded model with similar features and design but significantly lower cost.

There are a lot of confusing questions... let me try to clarify some things: 1. All energy becomes heat. All of it. So, the electrical energy going into a light, a fan, a stereo, etc. all becomes heat. Any electrical device is 100% efficient (close enough) at producing heat. As the previous post said, a device that has a flue will not be 100% efficient at producing heat that goes in your house... because some of it goes out the flue. 2. The electrical energy that is actually consumed by an electrical device, measured in watt hours, is the amount of heat it produces. period. The only exception to this is a heat pump. So, a 1500 watt Edenpure heater produces exactly as much heat as a 1500 watt hair dryer or 1500 watt vacuum cleaner or 15 100 watt light bulbs. The EdenPure and Solar Comfort heaters have a higher coefficient of BS and are made of special wallet lightening materials... but other than that, they produce the same number of BTU's per watt hour of electricity as my Kitchen Aid mixer. 3. Believe it or not, visual light output isn't measured in Watts as we commonly think of it (it is a measure of radiant flux). We use the amount of light an incandescent bulb produces as a common reference point, but it's a really poor reference. So, for example, we say that a 26 watt florescent bulb produces the same light output as a 100 watt bulb... but the amount of light a 100 watt incandescent bulb produces varies a great deal. One of the factors is the voltage applied to the bulb and the voltage at which the wattage rating was given. On the other hand, a 26 watt fluorescent bulb produces 26 watt hours of heat while a 100 watt bulb produces 100 watt hours of heat. If it's light that you are after and not heat, you want the thing that produces the most light for the least amount of electricity. A kilowatt hour (1000 watts for an hour) is equal to 3413 btu's. BTW: large office buildings often don't need heat in the core of the building because of all the heat from the lights, computers, etc. The actual measurement of light is very complicated - there are parts of the light spectrum that we can't see (infrared and ultraviolet, for example) The common measure you will likely see in comparing light output is lumens. That is a more apples-to-apples measure of light output for average people if you don't use the inexact "incandescent equivalent". Given that information, can I help you narrow down your questions a little?

I'm sure there are other people who know more about this sort of load, but these thoughts come to my mind: 1) the breaker could be faulty. 2) you should remember that a space heater is, in essence, a dead short. What prevents it from acting as a real dead short is the resistance of the elements, however, when these things kick in (heaters) the load is huge to start. I don't know if it's reasonable to expect a 1500w heater to run on a 4500w continuous genny or not. Being used and for sale, you might want to look more closely at the machine before you buy it, if I was you I'd test it with other sorts of loads not so intense - power tools etc. If you plan to buy this generator for the purpose of running heaters etc, it might not be big enough - after all, 1500w is a third of its capacity alone, not allowing for surge. Hopefully someone can confirm my suspicions, or debunk them.