Any of you use space heaters to save on the heating bill? (1 Viewer)

[Raider Nation]

Just wondering how it's working for you? I'll be spending most of my time in the living room. Seems silly to heat the entire home when I can get a portable space heater (utilized safely at all times) and take it back and forth from the living room to the bedroom. I understand the electric bill will go up, but it shouldn't be substantial. Keep in mind, I live alone so I don't have a family to keep warm. Am I missing something?

 

[sbonomo]

Just wondering how it's working for you? I'll be spending most of my time in the living room. Seems silly to heat the entire home when I can get a portable space heater (utilized safely at all times) and take it back and forth from the living room to the bedroom. I understand the electric bill will go up, but it shouldn't be substantial. Keep in mind, I live alone so I don't have a family to keep warm. Am I missing something?

so/no cal guy here: natural gas is so much cheaper than electricity it really does not make sense here.

 

[Raider Nation]

This one looks interesting. The reviews are outstanding. Like this one.

My house is 1900 sq ft, with 2 floors and a very open floor plan. We live in Chicago with some very cold winters and our furnace went out. We used this heater upstairs and another heater downstairs and we are surviving the cold weather. Also, no gas bill and the heaters have only minimally increased the electric bill. I averaged a saving of $100 for the month using the heater versus the gas for the furnance. I am ordering 2 more to replace the heater downstairs and add some additional heat. I really love this heater and the ionizer is a bonus!

 

[Raider Nation]

Just wondering how it's working for you? I'll be spending most of my time in the living room. Seems silly to heat the entire home when I can get a portable space heater (utilized safely at all times) and take it back and forth from the living room to the bedroom. I understand the electric bill will go up, but it shouldn't be substantial. Keep in mind, I live alone so I don't have a family to keep warm. Am I missing something?

so/no cal guy here: natural gas is so much cheaper than electricity it really does not make sense here.

Interesting, thanks. The place I'm moving into is gas as well. Maybe it won't be as expensive as I anticipated. My old home was oil heat, and the bills were

 

[gianmarco]

Don't generate enough heat watching TV while eating hot dogs and jerking it? It's the married guys that need that heat running all the time, amirite?

 

[Raider Nation]

I have the forced air with heat and central AC all coming from the same unit. I don't mind being somewhat chilly in the winter (you can put blankets on) but I HATE being hot, so the AC is gonna get a workout. Not looking forward to the electric bills in the summer.

 

[Man In The Box]

I'd be worried about a pipe freezing when it gets really cold. Happened in my first house when my furnace went out and we had no heat for a few days.

 

[captain_amazing]

Is zoning not an option? Probably better savings long term.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Is zoning not an option? Probably better savings long term.

Is it hard to zone a house ex post facto? Mine is annoyingly set to one zone for 2 stories and a basement. Top floor has wrongly temperature in summer and winter.

 

[captain_amazing]

Is zoning not an option? Probably better savings long term.

Is it hard to zone a house ex post facto? Mine is annoyingly set to one zone for 2 stories and a basement. Top floor has wrongly temperature in summer and winter.

I'm no HVAC expert, but I think it really depends on your current setup. We have one zone on a three story townhouse, but pipes that can be easily zoned because of how they separate right at the boiler (we plan to do that next summer). But I think some one-zone setups have one set of pipes running through a building, which would be much more difficult to add another zone to.

 

[NutterButter]

Just wondering how it's working for you? I'll be spending most of my time in the living room. Seems silly to heat the entire home when I can get a portable space heater (utilized safely at all times) and take it back and forth from the living room to the bedroom. I understand the electric bill will go up, but it shouldn't be substantial. Keep in mind, I live alone so I don't have a family to keep warm. Am I missing something?

so/no cal guy here: natural gas is so much cheaper than electricity it really does not make sense here.

Interesting, thanks. The place I'm moving into is gas as well. Maybe it won't be as expensive as I anticipated. My old home was oil heat, and the bills were

Maybe you missed Obama cutting the price of oil in half

 

[Otis]

Sounds like a great way to save on your heating bill, particularly after you burn your house down and your heating bill after that will be zero.

 

[Raider Nation]

Sounds like a great way to save on your heating bill, particularly after you burn your house down and your heating bill after that will be zero.

These aren't your grandfather's space heaters anymore. They are much safer now. Some of them wouldn't tip over if you pushed them.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Is zoning not an option? Probably better savings long term.

Is it hard to zone a house ex post facto? Mine is annoyingly set to one zone for 2 stories and a basement. Top floor has wrongly temperature in summer and winter.

I'm no HVAC expert, but I think it really depends on your current setup.We have one zone on a three story townhouse, but pipes that can be easily zoned because of how they separate right at the boiler (we plan to do that next summer). But I think some one-zone setups have one set of pipes running through a building, which would be much more difficult to add another zone to.

Mine is a gas heater going into ducts to the different floors. I'll have to look harder, but I know there is one part where I can force the air more upstairs or downstairs. My gut feeling is this just is basement vs the rest of the house. I think I am screwed.

My hope is to get an advanced thermostat that will allow me to use a wireless thermostat on the top floor as my 'sensor.' I don't really need multiple zones, I just need to be able to have the temperature sensed in a different location.

 

[KCitons]

My kids have basement bedrooms. They have been using the oil filled radiator heaters for the past 5 years. It works well heating their 12 x 12 room on medium setting. When on high it will get too warm.

 

[Riversco]

I broke out a space heater today. It has a sensor so that it shuts off if it tips over. Its pretty sensitive because even moving it around will shut it off. Welcome to the future.

 

[AAABatteries]

I'm a FBG - I just burn hundreds to stay warm when it becomes necessary.

 

[cstu]

We had a mini split system installed and love it.

 

[Hastur]

My kids have basement bedrooms. They have been using the oil filled radiator heaters for the past 5 years. It works well heating their 12 x 12 room on medium setting. When on high it will get too warm.

That is what we have. Highly recommended.

 

[Raider Nation]

Hmmm, that unit is cheaper than the thing I linked to, and it has an old-school charm.

 

[RC94]

Hmmm, that unit is cheaper than the thing I linked to, and it has an old-school charm.

What did you wind up buying? I am looking to get one too

 

[Fat Nick]

Is zoning not an option? Probably better savings long term.

We have a dual-zone in our house. The house layout isn't ideal for it though. Very open concept, with a big entry foyer to the upstairs hallway. It makes sense to cut just the upstairs on at night, but if you try and run just the downstairs during the day, it gets overworked b/c the heat just goes up to the 2nd floor in the foyer. It helps a little, but there are drawbacks.

 

[proteus126]

I'd be worried about a pipe freezing when it gets really cold. Happened in my first house when my furnace went out and we had no heat for a few days.

This.

One thing we used to do is:

(1) Put that shrink wrap on all windows

(2) Keep shades / blinds closed except when sunlight is shining on that side of the house

(3) Close the registers in, and the doors to, unused rooms where there is no issue with in-wall piping

That will save some dough.

A 1KW space heater being run 12 hours a day for 30 days will burn 360KWH a month. At $0.13 per KWH (an average number) that is $47 per month, so obviously running just a space heater is pretty cheap. But your home structure will be in deep freeze. No thanks.

 

[gianmarco]

I'd be worried about a pipe freezing when it gets really cold. Happened in my first house when my furnace went out and we had no heat for a few days.

This.

One thing we used to do is:

(1) Put that shrink wrap on all windows

(2) Keep shades / blinds closed except when sunlight is shining on that side of the house

(3) Close the registers in, and the doors to, unused rooms where there is no issue with in-wall piping

That will save some dough.

A 1KW space heater being run 12 hours a day for 30 days will burn 360KWH a month. At $0.13 per KWH (an average number) that is $47 per month, so obviously running just a space heater is pretty cheap. But your home structure will be in deep freeze. No thanks.

That's not "cheap", IMO. Most space heaters are 1,500W so add 50% to that number (now $70). And even those don't really do an effective job of heating up an entire room.

 

[skol asylum]

Natural gas is dirt cheap.

 

[AhrnCityPahnder]

Make sure you're looking at the load on your current breaker where you're thinking of doing this. Portable heaters draw 10A minimum. Sometimes more.

A portable heater + a few other things (like in my case, a large plasma and a surround sound system) would pop the breaker all the time. the last time we had an electrician here I had him run a new dedicated 15A line to the living room.

 

[Courtjester]

We couldn't do it in our place I can tell you that. My wife and kids like the house kept at 74 during the winter (I would be fine with it at 65). We actually got a space heater for our bedroom because our house is three levels and our bedroom is over the garage on the 3rd level so it gets really cold in that room.

 

[Fat Nick]

I'd be worried about a pipe freezing when it gets really cold. Happened in my first house when my furnace went out and we had no heat for a few days.

This.

One thing we used to do is:

(1) Put that shrink wrap on all windows

(2) Keep shades / blinds closed except when sunlight is shining on that side of the house

(3) Close the registers in, and the doors to, unused rooms where there is no issue with in-wall piping

That will save some dough.

A 1KW space heater being run 12 hours a day for 30 days will burn 360KWH a month. At $0.13 per KWH (an average number) that is $47 per month, so obviously running just a space heater is pretty cheap. But your home structure will be in deep freeze. No thanks.

That's not "cheap", IMO. Most space heaters are 1,500W so add 50% to that number (now $70). And even those don't really do an effective job of heating up an entire room.

Yeah. I agree. Space heaters as a cost savings only work if you plan to shut down the rest of your house. If they were somehow more efficient for the amount of heat they put out, then people wouldn't use whole-home furnaces/blowers, etc. The savings doesn't come from the efficiency of the unit, it comes from the fact that the unit is made to only heat a really small area. Anything much bigger than an average bedroom and you probably would be just as well off running the heat in the house.

 

[Spin]

My upstairs is always close to 10 degrees hotter then the downstairs. If I set the heat at 70, it'll be ~80 upstairs and 70 downstairs.

 

[Mr. Ected]

My upstairs is always close to 10 degrees hotter then the downstairs. If I set the heat at 70, it'll be ~80 upstairs and 70 downstairs.

If that is a problem, and you have heated air, check near your furnace for a valve in the ducts to adjust the amount of air going up and downstairs.

 

[Hawks64]

My upstairs is always close to 10 degrees hotter then the downstairs. If I set the heat at 70, it'll be ~80 upstairs and 70 downstairs.

If that is a problem, and you have heated air, check near your furnace for a valve in the ducts to adjust the amount of air going up and downstairs.

Also you can close the registers at least half way and the temps should even out more

 

[Raider Nation]

Hmmm, that unit is cheaper than the thing I linked to, and it has an old-school charm.

What did you wind up buying? I am looking to get one too

Still researching. This other DeLonghi is cool looking, lightweight, easy to take from room-to-room and also got great reviews.

ETA: This YouTube reviewer loves it.

 

[VA703]

Save the money. This is all you need http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00G96Y3I4/ref=pd_aw_sbs_2?pi=SY115&simLd=1#immersive-view_1420754095148