Household appliance heating elements are electric energy conversion components used in daily household appliances to achieve specific heating functions. Their core goal is to meet the needs of household users for “safety, efficiency and convenience”. This type of component is widely used in common household appliances such as electric water heaters, rice cookers, electric heaters, microwave ovens, coffee machines, etc., and needs to achieve precise temperature control and uniform heating in a limited space, while complying with strict household safety standards (such as 3C certification).

From the perspective of materials, household heating elements mostly use nickel-chromium alloys (such as Cr20Ni80 heating wires), PTC (positive temperature coefficient) ceramics, quartz tubes, etc. Among them, nickel-chromium alloys are often used in electric blankets and electric heaters due to their low cost, high resistivity, and good processing performance; PTC ceramics have become the first choice for electric water heaters, hair dryers, and other scenes that need to prevent dry burning due to their automatic temperature limiting characteristics (resistance increases sharply and power decreases when the temperature is too high); quartz tubes are mostly used for local high-temperature heating in ovens and heaters due to their small thermal inertia and uniform heating.

In terms of design, household heating elements need to take into account both miniaturization and safety: for example, the heating plate of the rice cooker (usually an aluminum substrate + heating wire/PTC composite structure) needs to fit the curvature of the inner pot to ensure uniform heating; the heating base of the electric kettle needs to integrate a thermostat and anti-dry burning protection to avoid the risk of empty burning. In addition, household scenes are sensitive to noise and energy consumption, so the components need to optimize thermal efficiency (such as reducing thermal radiation loss) and reduce operating noise (such as avoiding the abnormal sound of the heating wire due to violent expansion). In typical applications, the heating element of the electric kettle needs to boil 1.5L of water within 3-5 minutes, and the power is usually controlled at 1500-2000W, taking into account efficiency and household power load restrictions.