What are the special features of heating wire?

Answer 1

"Heating" wire is used in the toaster, electric baseboard heater, blow-drier, percolator,

electric space heater, and in just about any other place where electricity is used to

produce heat. It's simply a wire with more resistance than 'hook-up wire'.

The purpose of the wiring in typical electrical and electronic devices is simply to

connect the components to each other. It's made to have as little resistance as

possible, so as not to dissipate any electrical energy.

But dissipation of electrical energy is the whole purpose of an appliance used to

generate heat. The heating element ... comprised of heating wire ... is the main

component in that circuit.

The heating wire has some resistance ... enough to avoid a "short circuit" that

would trip the circuit breaker and possibly melt the house wiring, but little enough

so that it draws a large current and gets glowing-red hot when connected across

the mains supply. Typically, a fan blows air across the heating wire, to pick up the

heat and distribute it into the room or the wet hair.