Heaters and Society - Research Proposal Example

HEATERS AND SOCIETY Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………...3 Literature review.......................................................................................................4 Research Question / Hypothesis...............................................................................6 Theoretical Framework............................................................................................7 Quantitative Research Methods................................................................................8 Qualitative Research Methods..................................................................................9 Discussion................................................................................................................10 Conclusion...............................................................................................................11 Annotated Bibliography...........................................................................................14 References…………………………………………………………………………17 Introduction. Invention of heaters is one of the most significant inventions of all human generation. Since their invention, they have continuously been used as water heating systems in homes. As widely cited, heaters have an advantage of lowering energy costs. They are reported to have efficiency of about 70%. This makes them to be regarded as more attractive than the photovoltaic’s often used in harnessing energy for purposes of domestic use. It has been noted that different water heating system designs used in different scenarios. Historically, heaters were used as worming up gadgets especially during cold weather conditions. The sole purpose, in this case was to prevent people from dying due to extreme cold. However, there were detrimental effects that accompanied the use of heaters in those early historical days. As noted, smoke from fires, which served as heaters was a major cause of deaths. Currently, there are countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which still impress the use the fire place for cultural and worming purposes. It is worth noting in the Middle East, the locale people were among the early groups that started using the heaters as substitutes of old method. This is attributed to energy efficiency often associated with using heaters. The most significant step in using the heaters in the society came when on November 20, 1868 Bill Compton impressed the use of heaters, in a move to prevent people from bad weather and reducing the number of death occurring from fires (Ruiz, 2010). This way, the first step was to adopt a gas as an alternative method. However, this proved expensive the low income earners who could not afford the price of gases. The next hallmark came when Willis Haviland Carrier came up with a brilliance idea of making heaters using electric. In modern homes, heaters have become part and parcel of life. In most cold countries such as Russia and Canada, research has indicated that about that nine over ten houses/apartments have heaters. Generally, since the 1868 this invention, modifications have been made on the heaters, which has gone a long way in increasing their efficiency. Research has shown that that the heaters will be saver and healthier to use (Ruiz, P, Toro, C, et al. 2010. p12). Although heaters as commonly used in the Middle East have sufficed, air-conditioners if adopted can help improve the household operations. Studies have shown that heaters have both positive impacts, as well as negative impacts on the societies. However, one thing that is not clear from such studies is whether or not heaters impacts positively to the society as to regard them as good inventions that should be impressed by the society. With a view to ascertain whether heaters should be adapted as positive contributors to societal well being, a study was set to investigate whether heaters have a positive contribution to the society or not. Literature review. According to Ruiz and Toro (2010), heaters are good for the society considering the comfort they provide to all kinds of the people. Being cheaper than gas and safe for usage, heaters have helped many people to save a substantial amount of money since they are one of the best methods of acquiring warmth. For many people in cold countries the main purpose of using heaters is because it is the only way to get the house warm. On the other hand, heaters help the old and sick people to stay home comfortably. In this case, heaters are one of the sources of heat and an invention for the new technology. This means that heaters have many benefits in terms of technological applications. Furthermore, one study reported that heat that comes from heaters inside houses balances the blood pressure of an individual with that of the outside (Healy&Ullah, 2009). Another good thing about heaters is the way of producing the heat, they produce heat even by electric or water which is relevant from the economic point. Heaters can also be useful in heating food and drinks. In this case, anyone in need of cooking or making some coffee can easily use heaters to perform that role hence making his or her life easier. Besides this, there are many good benefits in heaters when it comes to bill expenses. They are known to reduce the bill expenses to a greater magnitude. Secondly, the bad impacts of heaters in society are health, expenses and fuel use. Firstly, some researcher have showed out that many people get sick after staying in a warm places and going out without taking some protections. In fact, this study indicated that whenever 90% of places in cold countries have heaters, people tend to over rely on the heat from heaters hence may fall sick whenever they move out the heat (Ruiz, Toro &Koutrakis, 2010, p12). Additionally, the water heaters suspend some water to the environment inform of vapor. In this case, even if people stay warm and Wet this kind of heater makes everyone who sets in their domain to breathe some water with the oxygen and that in long period of time negatively affects the lungs. Secondly, not everyone in the society can offer to get heaters in his/her house because of the expanses by and after buying heaters. The range of heaters expanses is 30 to 40 dollars for each heater in the place and for many people heaters are important to them even if they hardly fide anything to eat. In one way or another, although some people with limited income like to get heaters, most of them cannot offer to pay the heaters’ expanses and that without a doubt it may not be good on any society (Morsy&Hamza, 2010 p83). Thirdly, many sciences believe that heaters in big factors help to replace fusil fuel and that the heat that they give to the machines is a substitution of the harmful smoke that would rather be released by the factory. This causes many problems to the environment hence affecting the entire society. To sum up, as many people believe that heaters are good for the society, they also have few problems on the society as well. Third of all, heaters in all kinds “electric and water” are good for the society because of the agreement of many sciences about the benefits of heaters (Haferburg, 2009). Heaters are vital in cold countries like Canada because they give out heat which is vital for the development of such countries. In countries like Japan and China heaters are extremely crucial in their economy. This is so because they facilitate the agricultural production among other factors of the economy. In the Middle East heaters are used in many different ways like heating water and cooking. It is, therefore, evidenced that heaters have a number of advantages and disadvantages to the societal use. From the body of literature, it is evidenced that there is no single study that has compared the positive and negative effects of heaters to the society. Most of the studies have discussed either the positive effects of heater, or the negative effects of heaters. This has established a gap in the previous research. The gap, in this case, is that there is no study that compared the merits and demerits of heaters to the society in order to found out whether heaters should be adapted for societal use. A clear comparison of the positive and negative effects of heaters to the society will bring out a clear view of the relevance of heaters to the society. This review, therefore, call for a study be done to compare the positive and negative impacts of heaters to the society. Hypothesis. In this study, it was hypothesize that heaters should be adapted as positive contributors to societal well being, due to availability of more positive effects to the society than the negative effects. This is so because, not all of the reviewed studies agreed that heaters are a worst invention for the society. Even though, some researchers argues out that they causes many kinds of diseases and harm to the humans’ health, some researchers believed that the heaters can be safe if used indoor, rather than outdoor. In this case, the device may not have any effect to the human’s body. In situations where there is a change in temperature from warm to cold leading to diseases, which might make an individual visit a doctors, heater my be helpful in preventing such cases and saving enough time for people to use in their works. This study is relevant because it attempts to find out appropriate methods that would replace the harmful smoke that come from the heat of factories. The limitations of this study is that many researchers did not concentrate on the different aspects of this innovation hence making it difficult for one to find works that are related to this invention. This was the weakest part of this study. However, the study gave out an insight towards the merits of heaters to the society. The study found out some solutions and recommendations of the negative impacts of using heaters. Research questions. This study seeks to answer the following research questions. What are the advantages of heaters to the society? What are the demerits of heaters to the society? What benefits do the society derive from use of heaters? What are the dangers of using heaters? Theoretical Framework. According to the class textbook, “everything in world as a continuously generated effect the webs of relationships within which they are located” (Quan-Haase, 2013, p. 55), the network theory relates to my proposal question since the network can be used from distances to control anything that is connected to the internet. Nowadays, electricity controls the internet, which appears to be a disadvantage to many people who cannot acquire electricity with ease. Quan-Haase, A. (2013) says that there are two advantages in technology. The first advantage is the definition of technology goes beyond a pure consideration of artifact. The second is the model and incorporates design as a middle stage that lies between the idea of a tool and the artifact itself. The similarities between this theory and my topic, was that heaters as a form of technological invention have improved since 1868s to be more helpful to the society. Additionally, heaters are one of the good inventions that help the society in many different ways. Heaters has replaced the past ways, in which people obtained heat only through wood fire which was unfriendly to the environment. Quantitative Research Methods. Hansah (2010) argues out that both electric and water heaters are good for the society because of the many benefits that the society have derived from them. This study argues out that science has proven that heaters are extremely beneficial to human life. For instance, in cold regions like Canada heaters have a significant role to play in the lifestyles of the residents because of the heat advantage. In this case, these countries depend on heaters to produce their crops thus developing the countries’ economy. Heaters are, therefore vital for the development of countries like Japan and China, which rely on heaters to enhance their agricultural sectors. According to Hansah (2010), people in Middle East use heaters in heating water and cooking of some special foods. Another research done by Roller &Ullah (2011), electric heaters such as the forced-air heat pumps are extremely energy efficient. The system utilizes approximately 50% lower power than other devices for heating at home. This study argues out that these heaters are normally build to drag warmth from the air outside so as to heat the interior section of the building. In this respect, electric heater have the potential of heating everything beginning form a small section of a house to the whole building. Most of the heaters operate on minimal power usage, hence saving the amount of money that a household spend on bills. Roller &Ullah (2011) also argue out that some heaters like the electric panel heaters are normally mounted to the building wall next a door so as to give heat to each room. These devices use a reduced amount of electric power in comparison to other heating devices. The need about one hundred and sixty watts for their operation. Whenever one turns a heater on and reduces the key setting of the furnace to a couple degrees, one can be able to maintain comfort for himself while conserving energy. Qualitative Research Methods. Sarah, (2013) analysed the relevance of heaters to the technology and reported that heaters have two advantages in technology. The first advantage was that heaters have a part to play in the definition of technology, which goes beyond a pure consideration of artifact. The second is that heaters are models incorporating different designs that are of middle stage lying between the idea of a tool and the artifact itself. This means that heaters came about as a result of the dynamic change in technology. The advanced technological innovations led to the introduction of heaters to the society. One of the reasons why heaters emerged was the increasing demands of an environmental friendly mode of home heating. Using heaters helps in creating a green economy. The heat derived from the heaters, does not produce any of the green house gases, hence making heaters be efficient method of heating at home. This means that the use of heaters will help in maintaining the environment. This is so because heaters do not release any type of pollutants that may affect the man’s environment. Another study done by Hamza & Hansah (2010), surveyed twenty households and reported that many individuals preferred heaters to other devices due to their economic value. According to this study, the participants used heaters for heating purposes. Hamza & Hansah (2010) concluded that heaters like the space heaters are an attractive method of heating up a room or a region whenever there exist cold weather conditions. Nevertheless, heaters could be dangerous if not used properly. Hamza & Hansah (2010) reported that about 25,000 fires of residential houses and more than 6000 room emergency visits are due to space heaters every year. About one third of the households fires across the globe happen as a result of home heating especially during cold seasons. In this respect, the prime reason of winter fires is improper use of heaters, faultiness of heaters, and insufficient maintenance of supplementary equipments like space heaters. Discussion. From the quantitative and qualitative studies, it is evidenced that despite the many negative effects of heaters like fires, heaters are one of the many beneficial innovations to the society. This is so because heaters have more positive effects to the society than the negative effects. Most of the reviewed qualitative and quantitative studies have displayed the beneficial aspects of heaters to the society. Research has shown out that the system efficiency relies on the boundary definition of that system (Bruce, 2001). For the customer of electrical energy, the efficiency of an electric heater is up to one hundred percent since all the energy that is purchased is changed into heat building. On the other hand, whenever the power plant giving out electricity of involved, the general efficiency will drop (Armstrong, 2008). Even though, different studies have reported electric heaters to be 100% efficient, the quantity of needed fuel for specified heat content is higher than the case where the fuel is burned inside a boiler or furnace in the heated building. Whenever an equal amount of the same fuel is utilized by a consumer, the efficiency would increase for the fuel to be burnt. Countries like Sweden use direct heating which is restricted due to the efficiency reasons. In Quebec, use of heaters is one of the popular ways of home heating. A study done in the year 2003 in Canada reported that about 68% of households within the whole province use heaters in space heating (Bruce, 2001). About ninety percent of the Quebec power is derived from hydroelectric dams, which have a reduced green house gas emission. In this case, use of heater is extremely economical especially when the supply of electricity or fuel is at a low cost. In situations where the principal electrical energy source is nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, or sources that are carbon free, it would be less practical to have the exploitation of such a resource directly for applications of heating, despite grid electrical use being convenient for this use (Bodycott, 2000). In those places where air handling is a challenge, electrical heaters may be extremely useful. In terms of the economic value of heaters, a partial day use could be extremely efficient in comparison to the heating of the whole building especially due to superiority of the control zone. Conclusion. From the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative studies, it is prudent to say that heaters should be adapted as positive contributors to societal well being due to their many positive effects as compared to the negative positive effects. In this study, all the research objectives of the study were achieved. Additionally, all the research questions of the study were answered. The study, therefore, approved the hypothesis that was set for the study. This means that indeed, heaters should be adapted for societal use due to the existence of more positive effects to the society than the negative effects. For instance in industrial sector, the merits of electrical methods of heating include an accurate distribution and temperature of heating energy, and its potential of obtaining the temperatures that cannot be achieved in a chemical combustion (Alfaro, 2010). This means that electrical heating can be established in any specific size and be located in any place within a plant. The processes of electric heating are known to be quiet, clean, and do not give out by product heating to the environment. The equipments used in electric heating have a high response of speed making them be equipments for mass production (Grant, 2007). Approving this hypothesis means that people in the society should take all safety measures while using the heaters. Whenever any individual in the society uses the heaters, it is recommended that they follow certain recommendations. First, all the electric or water heaters should always be approved and listed by the relevant bodies for them to be safe for human use. For the electrical heaters, they should be equipped or fitted with a shut off switch that is automatic (Armstrong, 2008). Secondly, heaters need to be kept about three feet away from any form of paper material or material that can easily catch fire such as furniture, curtain, bedding, or clothing. A heater should never be left in the room running or when one is sleeping. This is so because the excess heating could lead to the heating of any other material resulting to household fires. Thirdly, it is vital for every individual to be aware of the increased hazards of fire that are associated with putting combustibles, or drying clothes over heaters (Bodycott, 2000). If possible, one should plug the electric eater into a wall outlet directly without the use of the extension cords. This will help avoid explosion of the extension cords and cases of fire. In the absence of a wall outlet, the use of a strip plug fitted with a circuit breaker is an alternative considered being safe. Additionally, an electrical cord should not be extended via the openings of the wall floor coverings, or under doors (Grant, 2007). The cords should be arranged far away from areas of traffic for them not to be damaged or tripped over. Lastly, a heater should not be operated with cords that are damaged, after the malfunctioning of the heater, when the heater is dropped or when the heater is damaged in any way. If all the recommended safety measures are observed, then the entire society would enjoy the many benefits of heaters without any limitation. Annotated Bibliography Alfaro, C. (2010). Thermal energy and heaters. Green economy, 21(1), 47-59. This article is about the use of heaters as emitters of thermal. The article explains how heater can be adapted into production of thermal energy. The author focus on a qualitative study on electric heaters. Arvola, A. Vassall, M &Dea, M. (2008).Effect of Gas and Kerosene Space eaters on Indoor Air Quality, Chile. Science direct, 10, 1-14 This article is about how gas is not good on body and especially when it comes from heaters. This study was in New York in 2007. Armstrong, F. (2008). Global uses of electric heaters: Facilitation of global energy. Energy efficiency, 21(4), 490-506. This article explains how heaters have become a major source of heat in the globe. The author highlights the relevance of heaters to the economy and the establishment of the green economy. Bodycott, P. (2000). The value of short-term energy. Energy efficiency, 24(9), 27-33. The author of this article majors his discussion of energy efficiency. The article discuses heaters as a source of efficient energy to the world. The author highlights some limitations of heater use. Bruce, M. G. (2001). Developing environmental friendly energy. J of energy, 42(1), 21-27. This article discusses a qualitative research on heaters in the US. The heater discusses how heaters release energy that is environment friendly. Different types of heaters have mentioned in this article and their respective relevance. Grant, P. (2007). Evaluation of the Performance of Gas Tankless Water Heaters. Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, 10, 1-14 This article basically is quantitative research because it has many studies and statistics for Tankless Water Heaters (TWH) about how people can use them in the soon future. The method that the experimenter used was compering the water future needs and what people are using for the water’s heaters. The final result shows that the in some hot countries will start using the Tankless Water Heaters before others. This article is support my hypothesis because it is about how water heaters will be used in the future. Haferburg, C. (2009). Public Viewing areas: Urban interventions in the context of ega-events. New York: Oxford Publishers. The book was published in New York. The author discuses the uses of heaters to the society. He identifies different categories of heaters and their respective use to the society. This book highlights some limitation of using heater for whole building heating. Hamza, M &Hansah G. (2010).Energy efficiency and indoor thermal perception: a comparative study between radiant panel and portable convective heaters. Energy Efficiency. 12, 2-14 This article is about how the heaters change indoor mood. The authors explain the negative of using heaters in side houses. Overall, this entire article looked about the negative side more the positive. In conclusion the authors try to tell the readers about the other resources they should use instead of heaters. Roller, J &Ullah, T. (2011).Input-Output Approach to Predicting the Energy Efficiency of Residential Water Heaters—Testing of Gas Tankless and Electric Storage Water Heaters.Science direct.60:98–108. This article is about how the heaters are beneficial to the society. The authors explain the positive uses of heaters in the society. Overall, this entire article looked about the positive effects of heaters. Riazi, M, Razavi, J &Sadeghi, A. (2009). An Experimental Evaluation of opper, Steel and Polypropylene Tubes in Solar Water Heaters with Thermosyphonic Flow. Energy Efficiency. 0003-701X. V 45. This article is about how the limitation of heaters to the society. The authors explain the limitation of heaters to the society. Generally, the entire article is about the limitation of heaters. References Alfaro, C. (2010). Thermal energy and heaters. Green economy, 21(1), 47-59. Arvola, A. Vassall, M &Dea, M. (2008).Effect of Gas and Kerosene Space eaters on Indoor Air Quality, Chile. Science direct, 10, 1-14 Armstrong, F. (2008). Global uses of electric heaters: Facilitation of global energy. Energy efficiency, 21(4), 490-506. Bodycott, P., 2000. The value of short-term energy. Energy efficiency, 24(9), 27-33. Bruce, M. G., 2001. Developing environmental friendly energy. J of energy, 42(1), 21-27. Grant, P. (2007). Evaluation of the Performance of Gas Tankless Water Heaters. Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, 10, 1-14 Haferburg, C., 2009. Public Viewing areas: Urban interventions in the context of ega-events. New York: Oxford Publishers. Hamza, M &Hansah G. (2010).Energy efficiency and indoor thermal perception: a comparative study between radiant panel and portable convective heaters. Energy Efficiency. 12, 2-14 Ruiz, P & Toro, C. (2010). Heaters, Air Curtains Tout Easy Installation. TECHNICAL PAPER. 047-3289 Roller, J &Ullah, T. (2011).Input-Output Approach to Predicting the Energy Efficiency of Residential Water Heaters—Testing of Gas Tankless and Electric Storage Water Heaters.Science direct.60:98–108 Riazi, M, Razavi, J &Sadeghi, A. (2009). An Experimental Evaluation of opper, Steel and Polypropylene Tubes in Solar Water Heaters with Thermosyphonic Flow. Energy Efficiency. 0003-701X. V 45. Read More