Electric Heating

UTILIZATION OF ELECTRICAL
ENERGY

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Electric Heating
Electric heating is extensively used both for domestic and industrial applications.

Domestic applications include

i) room heaters

ii) Immersion heaters for water heating

iii) Hot plates for cooking

iv) Electric kettles

v) Electric irons

vi) Pop-corn plants

vii) Electric ovens for bakeries and

viii) Electric toasters etc.

Industrial applications of electric heating include

i) Melting of metals

ii) Heat treatment of metals like annealing, tempering, soldering and brazing etc.

iii) Molding of glass

iv) Baking of insulators

v) Enameling of copper wires etc.

Advantage of electrical heating

As compared to other methods of heating using gas, coal and fire etc., electric heating is far superior for the
following reasons:

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i) Cleanliness. Since neither dust nor ash is produced in electric heating, it is a clean system of heating
requiring minimum cost of cleaning.

ii) No Pollution. Since no flue gases are produced in electric heating, no provision has to be made for
their exit.

iii) Economical. Electric heating is economical because electric furnaces are cheaper in their initial cost as
well as maintenance cost since they do not require big space for installation or for storage of coal and
wood. Moreover, there is no need to construct any chimney or to provide extra heat installation.

iv) Ease of Control. It is easy to control and regulate the temperature of an electric furnace with the help
of manual or automatic devices. Temperature can be controlled within ± 5°C which is not possible in
any other form of heating.

v) Special Heating Requirement. Special heating requirements such as uniform heating of a material or
heating one particular portion of the job without affecting its other parts or heating with no oxidation
can be met only by electric heating.

vi) Higher Efficiency. Heat produced electrically does not go away waste through the chimney and other
byproducts. Consequently, most of the heat produced is utilised for heating the material itself. Hence,
electric heating has higher efficiency as compared to other types of heating.

vii) Better Working Conditions. Since electric heating produces no irritating noises and also the radiation
losses are low, it results in low ambient temperature. Hence, working with electric furnaces is conven-
ient and cool.

viii) Heating of Bad Conductors. Bad conductors of heat and electricity like wood, plastic and bakery items
can be uniformly and suitably heated with dielectric heating process.

ix) Safety. Electric heating is quite safe because it responds quickly to the controlled signals.

x) Lower Attention and Maintenance Cost. Electric heating equipment generally will not require much
attention and supervision and their maintenance cost is almost negligible. Hence, labor charges are
negligibly small as compared to other forms of heating.

Different Methods of Heat Transfer

The different methods by which heat is transferred from a hot body to a cold body are as under:

I. Conduction

II. Convection

III. Radiation

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I. Conduction
In this mode of heat transfer, one molecule of the body gets heated and transfers some of the heat to the
adjacent molecule and so on. There is a temperature gradient between the two ends of the body being
heated.

II. Convection
In this process, heat is transferred by the flow of hot and cold air currents. This process is applied in the
heating of water by immersion heater or heating of buildings. The quantity of heat absorbed by the body by
convection process depends mainly on the temperature of the heating element above the surroundings and
upon the size of the surface of the heater. It also depends, to some extent, on the position of the heater.

III. Radiation
It is the transfer of heat from a hot body to a cold body in a straight line without affecting the intervening
medium.

Resistance Heating
 It is based on the I2 R effect. When current is
passed through a resistance element, I2 R loss
takes place which produces heat. There are two
methods of resistance heating.

 In this method the material (or charge) to be

heated is treated as a resistance and current is
passed through it. The charge may be in the
form of powder, small solid pieces or liquid. The
two electrodes are inserted in the charge and
connected to either AC or DC supply

 Obviously, two electrodes will be required in the case of DC or single-phase AC supply but there would
be three electrodes in the case of 3-phase supply. When the charge is in the form of small pieces, a pow-
der of high resistivity material is sprinkled over the surface of the charge to avoid direct short circuit.
Heat is produced when current passes through it. This method of heating has high efficiency because
the heat is produced in the charge itself.

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In-Direct Resistance heating

In this method of heating, electric current is passed through a resistance element which is placed in an
electric oven. Heat produced is proportional to I2R losses in the heating element.

The heat so produced is delivered to the charge either by radiation or convection or by a combination of the
two. Sometimes, resistance is placed in a cylinder which is surrounded by the charge placed in the jacket as
shown in the Fig. This arrangement provides uniform temperature. Moreover, automatic temperature
control can also be provided.

Arc Furnaces
If a sufficiently high voltage is applied across an air-gap, the air becomes ionized and starts conducting in
the form of a continuous spark or arc thereby producing intense heat. When electrodes are made of car-
bon/graphite, the temperature obtained is in the range of 3000°C-
3500C. High voltage required for striking the arc can be obtained by using a step-up transformer fed from a
variable AC supply

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Direct Arc Furnace

It could be either of conducting-bottom type or non-conducting bottom type. As seen from, bottom of the
furnace forms part of the electric circuit so that current passes through the body of the charge which offers
very low resistance.

Hence, it is possible to obtain high temperatures in such furnaces. Moreover, it produces uniform heating of
charge without stirring it mechanically. No current passes through the body of the furnace. Most common
application of these furnaces is in the production of steel because of the ease with which the composition of
the final product can be controlled during refining. Most of the furnaces in general use are of non-
conducting bottom type due to insulation problem faced in case of conducting bottom.

Indirect Arc Furnace

A single-phase indirect arc furnace which is cylindrical in shape. The arc is struck by short circuiting the
electrodes manually or automatically for a moment and then, withdrawing them apart. The heat from the
arc and the hot refractory lining is transferred to the top layer of the charge by radiation. The heat from the
hot top layer of the charge is further transferred to other parts of the charge by conduction. Since no
current passes through the body of the charge, there is no inherent stirring action due to electro-magnetic
forces set up by the current. Hence, such furnaces have to be rocked continuously in order to distribute
heat uniformly by exposing different layers of the charge to the heat of the arc. An electric motor is used to
operate suitable grinders and rollers to impart rocking motion to the furnace.

Rocking action provides not only thorough mixing of the charge, it also increases the furnace efficiency in
addition to increasing the life of the refractory lining material. Since in this furnace, charge is heated by
radiation only, its temperature is lower than that obtainable in a direct arc furnace. Such furnaces are
mainly used for melting nonferrous metals although they can be used in iron foundries where small
quantities of iron are required frequently.

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Induction Heating
 This heating process makes use of the currents induced by the electro-magnetic action in the charge to
be heated. In fact, induction heating is based on the principle of transformer working. The primary wind-
ing which is supplied from an AC source is magnetically coupled to the charge which acts as a short cir-
cuited secondary of single turn. When an AC voltage is applied to the primary, it induces voltage in the
secondary i.e. charge. The secondary current heats up the charge in the same way, as any electric cur-
rent does while passing through a resistance.

 The value of current induced in the charge depends on (i) magnitude of the primary current (ii) turn ra-
tio of the transformer (iii) co-efficient of magnetic coupling. Low-frequency induction furnaces are used
for melting and refining of different metals. However, for other processes like case hardening and sol-
dering etc., high frequency eddy current heating is employed. Low frequency induction furnaces em-
ployed for the melting of metals are of the following two types:

Core-type Furnaces
 It operates just like a two winding transformer. These can be further sub-divided into (i) Direct core-
type furnaces (ii) Vertical core-type furnaces and (iii) Indirect core-type furnaces.

Coreless-type Furnaces
 In which an inductively-heated element is made to transfer heat to the charge by radiation.

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Dielectric Heating
It is also called high-frequency capacitive heating and is used for heating insulators like wood, plastics and
ceramics etc. which cannot be heated easily and uniformly by other methods. The supply frequency
required for dielectric heating is between 10-50 MHz and the applied voltage is up to 20 kV. The overall
efficiency of dielectric heating is about 50%.

Advantages of Dielectric Heating

1. Since heat is generated within the dielectric medium itself, it results in uniform heating.

2. Heating becomes faster with increasing frequency.

3. It is the only method for heating bad conductors of heat.

4. Heating is fastest in this method of heating.

5. Since no naked flame appears in the process, inflammable articles like plastics and wooden products etc.
can be heated safely.

6. Heating can be stopped immediately as and when desired.

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