Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Do the flat panel heaters work well in a coop? Has anyone got any experience with them?

yes, they work well. they don't heat the coop, but they take the edge off (bring the temp up a few degrees) and dry the air a bit to keep humidity down. Plus, because they are an enclosed unit, so no worries about being a fire hazard. and they don't draw a lot of power. ours in the main coop draws 400 watts. we also have a cozy coop 200 watt unit for our quail tractor.

I have them in all of our coops. They are on a thermostat so they don't come on until below 5C, the min I can set it at. Ours came from Home Depot. They are also easy to wipe clean.

I tried it didn't like it, I felt a bulb gave off more heat. Maybe I expected too much but I could sit right in front of it and get very little heat. Maybe mine wasn't working as they say theirs works well.

I'm going to try the 400w panel, thanks everyone.

Just a little additional info ...
There are 3 forms of heat transfer: Conduction, Convection and Radiant heat.
In a Comfort Heating situation, Conduction (physical transfer of heat from source to target by direct contact; e.g., stovetop) is not an option, so whilst it is the most efficient method of the three (presuming a suitable medium to conduct of course), we’re left with Convection or Radiant heat.
Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement of liquids or gases. Its properties are:
* Convection currents naturally rise as the hot medium (air in this case) expands and decreases in density and as the cool air increases in density and sinks. Convection in a central heating context, therefore, implies warm air rising to the ceiling and then circulating gradually to lower levels in the room, being at its coldest near the floor;
This air movement cannot be controlled and heat transfer always works from hot to cold which you cannot control in the air. If a door to a cold corridor is opened, draughts exist, etc, the warm air will naturally flow there;
* You cannot feel a convection current to the side of a convecting surface (any heat you feel would be radiant) only above it;
* Air absorbs heat poorly and transfers it back out to other objects poorly;
* Air is not “zoneable” and rapidly cools when the thermostat switches off (i.e. the heater is only effective when on).
Radiant heat has considerable advantages over convected heat for comfort heating because:
* Radiant heat has a higher “flux” (watts output per metre per degree centigrade of the heater) than convection heating. You require less radiant heat for less time to do the job of more convected heat for more time;
* A Radiant heater directly heats objects in an environment, not the air in between. So you are heating the surface area of objects in an environment that warms up and turns the environment into a 360° radiator. This effect is felt less with heated air which transfers heat into objects poorly;
* Objects retain heat better than air, so residual energy maintains the temperature in the environment for longer e.g. if a door is opened to a colder room, or when the thermostat turns off the heat source;
* You can manage the heater by a thermostat set to a lower air temperature because it is the environment that heats up first, not the air.

That being said, the biggest things I like about convection heating for the coop (i.e., flat-panel heater) are:
1. Flat-panel heaters are fully enclosed, hence not at risk for fire because of dust settling on heating elements.
2. It dries the air/environment. The biggest contributor to comb and wattle frostbite is the level of moisture in the air, not just the extreme cold. Because chickens breathing and their manure contributes to excess moisture in the environment, regardless of how well ventilated their housing is, keeping the moisture levels down is very important.
3. While it may not specifically warm the air to the degree a radiant heater will, a warm body directly in front of it will feel warming effects.
4. It's much easier on your hydro bill.

Well I could put my hand directly on the flat. panel and feel next to nothing. How does everyone elses work, if you put your hand on it does it feel warm?

Yes it does feel quite warm.

Maybe mine didn't work. I took it back.

If your heater didn't feel warm to touch after being on for several minutes then it must have been a defective unit. That's unfortunate.