@JMac See
mrsec.psu.edu/content/light-bulb-efficiency for a reference. Incandescent blubs only emit 10% of their energy as light (they are physically very hot to touch). The rest as heat. That's why everyone hates them (LED bulbs are much much better). [But we're getting off topic; the point I'm making is that it's plausible for different formats of heaters to be better/worse in practice despite both theoretically being 100% efficient]