Living in a northern clime, keeping chickens warm during the winter can be a challenge. Cold chickens don’t lay as many eggs, and the difference is substantial when the full bite of winter sets in. Plus there’s the inconvenience of frozen drinking water, requiring immediate intervention to save thirsty chickens, not to mention the risk of frostbite.Until two days ago, I used a fan-type ceramic heater. While this was usually adequate, it struggled to keep up in single-digit weather, and collected copious amounts of dust on the fan and heating elements. This led to risky situations unless the unit was cleaned at least weekly with compressed air.I installed this 1500W panel heater just ahead of a snowy cold snap with 10° weather last night, and it worked perfectly!With the old ceramic heater of the same wattage, i had to expect frozen drinking water in the morning in weather like this, but to my delight there was no such problem this morning. The convective flow of warm air silently wafting through the large radiant surfaces of the panel had kept the coop in the low 30°s all night, even with the somewhat drafty coop and chicken-vandalized insulation.I also bought some anti-bird spikes for the wall, which you may be able to see in the picture if you zoom in, in order to keep the birds from perching on top of the unit and blocking the airflow.Without any meaningful horizontal surfaces inside the unit, I expect dust accumulation to be minimal, slashing the risk of overheating and inefficiency which I had to continuously fight with the underpowered ceramic fan heater.The sheet of stainless steel foil, which I had laying around since the 90’s, which I attached behind the unit, was probably not strictly necessary, as the back surface temperature during operation is hot, but not hot enough to affect the wall. But it was nice to finally find a use for the sheet after thirty years. It provides a small boost to the efficiency by reflecting rather than absorbing the radiant heat from the back of the unit.Its temperature setting seems to be accurate, and the remote control makes adjustments easy.I at first felt like this unit might be an extravagance for chickens, but the peace of mind and increased performance and convenience I have seen over the last couple of days so far are making me glad I pulled the trigger on this purchase.