Space Heaters: Energy Savers or Suckers?

TipHero - Your Guide to Saving Money

Tip Hero serves up fresh money-saving tips daily,
with over 2,000 tips shared to date.

GET FREE UPDATES:

Tips by Category:

Q & A

Home > Q & A > Topics: Heating

-----------------------------------------

Space Heaters: Energy Savers or Suckers?

Submitted by: anonymous 01/20/2009 1:41 PM

I work from home and there is only one heating zone in my house. So during the day, I keep the thermostat at 59 degrees and just use a space heater in my office. The space heater is pretty old (from the 90's) so I am worried that it is actually cost me more in electricty costs to run the space heater. So, I have 2 questions, 1)is this a good money saving option and if so, 2)any recommendations on energy efficient space heaters? thanks.

---
sponsored: Find Money Budgeting Tips.

---
Tip Hero serves up new money-saving tips daily.
Get free updates via Email , RSS or Twitter.

More Money-Saving Tips:

12 Ways to Make Extra Money

18 Money-Saving Grocery Shopping Tips

A Quick Guide to Debt Settlement

Want To Save Money On Auto Insurance?

Sponsored Searches:

Make Money From Home

Money Saving Tips

Online Sweepstakes

Comments:

.................................

I would get an energy efficient space heater...do away with the older one you have. I had purchased an EF heater made by Honeywell that was recommended by Consumer Digest. It works great for small spaces. The effect it has on the electric bill depends on how long I run it, but considering what it would cost me to have my propane tanks filled monthly due to running the furnace more often, the electric increase doesn't outweigh it.

Consider this: my electric bill doubled ($75/mo to $150/mo) when I ran the space heater most of the day. However, if running the furnace more often, I would've been paying $240-$300/mo...plus the regular $75/mo for electric. So, do the math...
Hope this helps!

Posted by Lauri on January 23, 2009 8:04 PM

.................................

As a gift I received an electric fire place, it has really saved on my oil bills, instead of filling my tanks three times a year, I have only had to fill them once. Electric went up about 20 dollars, but I try to save on electric in other ways.

Posted by Elizabeth Homard on February 15, 2009 6:03 AM

.................................

Despite all the advertising to the contrary, there is no such thing as an electric space heater that heats better than another electric space heater. A watt of electricity converts to exactly the same amount of heat, regardless of how it is done. So save your space heater--it is exactly as efficient as the new ones.

Posted by Joe Burney on April 03, 2009 1:56 PM

.................................

what about leaving your furance fan on 100% of time vices on and off temp differant only 1 deg diff from floor to ceiling house thermostat 70 deg elec 60.00 summer winter about the same electric stove and dryer gas furance hot water heater min 35.00 summer winter100.00 per month

Posted by anonymous on December 07, 2009 8:53 PM

.................................

-----------------------------------------

Share Your Comments:

Comments may need to be approved before they are displayed.

Comments:

Name (leave blank if you want to be anonymous):

Email Address (your email address will not be displayed):

Website URL (not required; please do not include "http://"):