Someone needs to design a heater with a proportional controller and a burner that's super efficient at all fuel flow rates. Right now, most are simply on-and-off at full flame, which is wasteful.
Heaters are working at their maximum efficiency only when the heater itself is up to temperature. Once the thermostat tells it to shut off, it cools, only to need reheating. That's why it's foolish to buy a way-oversized heater, as it will come on, pump out large amounts of heat, then shut off too soon for it to level out. What you want is a heater that stays on for long burn cycles of moderate output instead.
Ideally, a heater should be on at all times, adding energy at exactly the rate it is being lost. If anyone can devise a control/burner combination to do that, they'd get real rich.
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