Actually, what I did for my shop was build a thermostat for it. If you go to the local Home center and buy a cheap as you can (and this is the important part) LINE VOLTAGE thermostat (as commonly sold for electric baseboard hearters), you can put a plug and a receptacle on it. I'd offer you mine, but I gave it away to the woman in the next hangar over at the airport.

1500W dimmers are going to be mucho expensive (and you still have to wire it up). The above can be had for about $25 in parts.

I don't believe the space heater you are describing is 'meant' to be on all the time, just when you are around and need it. There are fire risks with this type of heater and you should be around while it is being used. This is similar to running a wood fireplace while you are not around. Although yes you could modify what you have to work, you might want to look at one of the safer versions of heaters that already have the temp control and have high and low setting. I prefer the heaters with the quartz heating element, they tend to be more efficient as well. You say quartz in your title but if there is a halogen heating bulb that is not a quartz heater. BTW, running any 1500W heater on high (or full load) pretty much takes up an entire 15A circuit. If you are using corded power tools or things like a table saw, you wont be able to use this heater on high and the table saw even on a 20A circuit.

Thanks Ron, I saw line voltage thermos and did not know if that would work. I swear I saw one that was actually plug in. I surmise that it need to handle all the current 12.5A and maybe a little more?

Vith, this is listed as Quartz Halogen, so it is radiant and that is what I need, plus it looks nice. And it is a 20A circuit so no problem unless you try to use the hair dryer at the same time!!! I agree that a heater with a hi/lo would be ideal but this one is the style I want.

Typically these things are good for 20A which will get you more than enough even at 110v.

I'd go with the home brew line voltage thermostat as Ron suggested if you can't find your plug-in model at a reasonable price. It will be the least expensive. Just get a two-gang plastic box and some clamps and it will be quick. It did occur to me that you could use a duty cycle timer to modulate output. I think that there are some plug-in models. You'd have to adjust it over time to match the heat loss from your space.

Cmon Ron, you know the equation. I = P/V

If you have 1500w (P) and voltage of 110 (V) you get 13.6 Amp (I). At 120v its 12.5A.

Now if you throw any sort of table saw on the same circuit (which is minimum another 13A, and can be up to 15A for contractor grade table saw) that will simply not work on 20A. Even using an angle grinder which is around 5A draw will cut it close with the 20A.

I stand by what I said previously, you would do well to have that heater on its own circuit if your going to run it on full load.

We were tripping the breaker with the hair dryer just after we moved in, this is a 1960 house, so we had the electrician run a 20amp line. He cautioned, of course, that we could run either the heater or the dryer but not both which I already knew. The heater only runs for the time it takes me to get out of the shower and dry off.

Since it sounds like you're going to buy a new heater, why not buy one with a thermostat and eliminate the extra step of fabricating one? I've had a couple of basic space heaters over the years with thermostats and I don't recall either being very expensive.

As an aside, many years back I was dating a girl whose grandmother used quartz heaters to supplement the furnace. One afternoon we were otherwise engaged when the bedspread got a little too close to the quartz heater. <lol>

That's why you keep bedspreads away from the heater, otherwise engaged or not!

Frank,

Back then I didn't have GardenWeb to get sage advice... <lol>