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Ask Mr. Electricity
about saving on heating costs
This page has random questions and
answers only.
You'll probably find my
general page
about heating to be more
useful.
I read your
article on saving electricity with
interest, untill you got to space
heaters. Clearly you don't live in
Canada. Your advice on heating with
space heaters is wrong/poor if you live
somewhere that needs heat enough to stop
the pipes from freezing or that needs the
space heaters on constantly in order to
heat the room that you are in.
I lived for a short time with a very bad
landlord who insisted on heating only with
space heaters, we froze, the house froze,
the food froze and worst of all the
heating bill tripled! Much of your
advice is good, but I don't think that you
understand heating in a cold climate.
--
John Barclay, Canada, July
2008
- Who on earth said it's a good
idea to heat up your whole house
just to keep your pipes from
freezing?! Instead of keeping
your pipes from freezing the most
inefficient way possible, consider
using heat
tape (which, at 3 watts per foot,
will let you warm 50 feet of pipe for a
mere 150 watts), and good insulation on
top of that. You say you have more than
50' of pipe? It doesn't matter. It's
always cheaper to warm just the
pipes rather than your whole
house just so that a little bit of
that heat makes it to the pipes.
- My advice for using space
heaters instead of central heat was to
heat only the part of the house that
you're using instead of the whole
house. If you're gonna heat the
whole house with space heaters
instead of just part of it, then of
course there's no advantage, and you
might as well use central heat.
I have a two
and a half story house and want to reduce
my heating bill. What is the best
temperature to keep my thermostat at in
the winter to reduce costs?
--
George Wait, Cary, NC, Jan.
2005
You really have to ask? As low
as it will go. To save the most money
you should turn the heat off
completely.
If you complain that you won't be
comfortable without any heat, I'll
remind you that you didn't ask about
your comfort level, you asked what
temperature setting would reduce
costs the most. That temperature
setting is the lowest one possible. If
that's too low for your comfort then
set the thermostat to the lowest
temperature you are comfortable
with.
That level is something known only
to you, not to me. You can't find your
own comfort level by writing to some
guy on the Internet.
I know you
don't see benefit in wood stoves in
basements, but, I must tell you, we had
one in our old house, and we just cracked
the cellar door, and had so much heat we
had to open windows, frequently. We didn't
use our oil heat at all.
In our house
now we have electric heat with thermostats
in each room. My son (it's his house)
keeps only the thermostat in the living
room on, set at 60 degrees F. That's it. I
believe we would be warmer, and spend
less, if we put all thermostats at 64 or
68, so that the heating system doesn't
continuously work to heat the whole house
from one thermostat. Am I
wrong?
-- Lauren
MacArthur, Waterbury, CT, Jan.
2005
Yes, you're wrong. The warmer
you want your house, the more energy
it's going to take to make it so.
Heating the house to 60 degrees takes X
amount of energy, no matter how many
heaters are contributing to the effort.
Heating it to 64-68 takes considerably
more energy.
When you have multiple heaters going
it simply shortens the amount of time
before you reach the desired
temperature, but you use the same
amount of energy. You can run one
heater for three hours or three heaters
for one hour, it makes no
difference.
In fact, when you want to warm the
house to a specific temperature, using
one heater will use less energy than
using several. That's because the room
with the thermostat will be warmer than
the rest of the rooms, so the
thermostat will think everything's warm
enough, and it will shut off.
I don't turn on my own heat until it
gets below 55.
As for heating a basement, most of
the heat generated there is wasted
since nobody lives in the basement. If
you used the same kind of fuel to heat
your living space directly then you'd
need a lot less fuel to do so --
whether it's wood, oil, or
electricity.
Which is the
better portable electric heater:
oil-filled or fan-blow?
-- B. T. Wanter,
Jan. 2005
Depends on your criteria. They
both generate a similar amount of heat
and use a similar amount of electricity
to do so (1500 watts). Oil-filled
heaters take longer to heat up a room,
but they're safer because no one part
of them gets hot enough to start a
fire. They pull that off by having a
greater surface area -- a little bit of
heat is spread around the entire heater
itself. Another advantage is that they
operate silently.
If you want safety or quiet
operation, go with oil-filled. If you
don't care about those things and want
speed, go with fan-blow.
I don't use a heater at all until it
gets below 55 degrees inside and my
fingers are too cold to type, and I
don't use a heater while I'm sleeping
no matter how cold it gets. (Yes, I can
see my breath in my house in the
morning.) When I do turn on a heater I
use the Heatsafe fan-blow ribbon heater
I got from Sears
for $35. Incidentally, if you ran a
1500-watt heater continuously it would
use 1100 kWh per month (1500 watts X 24
hours X 31 days), and at 10¢/kWh
that would run you $110/mo.
I have an
oil-filled radiant heater with a switch
for 600 or 900 or 1500 watts. Which uses
less energy to heat a cold room to a
certain temperature, 600 or 900 watts? How
much does it cost to run a
heater?
-- Sunflower
Christine, Salada, CO, Dec.
2004
They're both the same. There
isn't anything magical about this. At
the 900-watt setting you'll use 50%
more energy than at 600 watts but it
will take 50% less time to get the room
to the required temperature.
Well, at 600 watts, since the room
is being heated more slowly, there will
be more time for the heat in the home
to transfer out of the home, and thus
it will theoretically take a little
more time to get the room to a certain
temperature, but the difference is
probably negligible.
In any event, it's gonna take
several hours for a 600 or 900 or even
a 1500-watt heater to heat a
subfreezing room by even 30 degrees. It
might not take that long if the room
were well insulated, but if the room is
below freezing we can assume that it's
not.
To figure how much it costs to run
see the cost
page.
I'm a rep in a
home improvement store and electrical
staff are saying that a 1500W portable
heater running on 120V consumes more
electricity than a 1500W baseboard heater
running on 240V. They insist that the
meter reads the energy and that an
appliance like the portable heater will be
charged at the 240V rate at the meter. Me,
I think a watt is a watt.
-- Ric, Dec.
2004
You're right, a watt is a
watt, as far as how you're charged for
electricity. All utility companies
charge by how many kilowatt-hours you
use. If two appliances use the same
number of watts then you'll be charged
the same amount for using either of
them, regardless of how many volts they
use.
Remember that Volts x Amps = Watts.
A device that runs on 240V draws half
as many amps as a similar wattage
device that runs on 120V. Bottom line,
watts are watts, and watts are what you
get charged for. Volts don't
matter.
I'm looking
for something to provide insulation for
light switches/electrical outlets on
exterior walls. I read about foam gaskets
that you insert behind plate but I can't
find them.
-- Lori, St.
Louis, Dec. 2004
These should be easy to find
at hardware or home improvement stores.
If your store doesn't have them then
ask them to order some, or try another
store.
What is the
best way to correct uneven heat
distribution through the air vents in a
house. We have some rooms that blow more
air than other rooms. The rooms that have
low volume air being blown are very
cold.
-- J. J.
Mitchell, Dec. 2004
The way to correct uneven
distribution is to adjust the dampers
inside the ducts. These are plates that
control how much airflow each duct
gets. Here's a picture on HomeTips.com.
Since you're unfamiliar with dampers I
suggest you have an HVAC professional
adjust these for you (and show you how
to do it).
If the air being blown from some
registers is cold then you probably
have leaks in your ducts and need to
have them repaired.
How much heat
do you lose by opening a door in the
winter? For instance, if it's 68°
inside and 20° outside, how much heat
do I lose leaving the door open for 1
minute bringing in groceries? I realize
house size and configuration -- and even
wind direction -- matter, but is there a
general rule of thumb?
-- Andrew
Tubbesing, Medina, OH, Dec.
2004
This type of measurement is
next to impossible to make, and there's
no rule of thumb I know of. Here's the
best way I can think of to estimate it.
1. Turn off the heater.
2. As soon as the temperature
goes down to 67, turn the heater
back on and record the amount of
time it takes to get back to 68.
3. Wait until the heater goes off
and the temperature has fallen back
to 68, in case you overshot it.
4. Open the door for one minute,
then close it.
5. Wait a couple of minutes for
the cold air to mix in your home. If
the temperature hasn't dropped to
67, then repeat steps 4 and 5 until
it does.
6. Divide the number you got in
step 2 by the number of times you
opened the door. That's the
approximate number of minutes you
have to run your heater to
compensate for one door opening.
Since this is such a crude way of
estimating it I wouldn't be
surprised if the figure were off by
400% or more.
Of course, the temperature in your
home is dropping even if you don't open
the door. We could make the following
additions to the above process to try
to account for that:
- Insert Step 3.5: Record how long
it takes for the temperature to drop
from 68 to 67 on its own, without
opening the door.
- Insert Step 5.5: Record the
number of minutes that elapsed from
the first door opening to the last
door close.
- Insert Step 5.6: Subtract the
number of minutes in step 5.5 from
the number you got in step 3.5, then
divide by the number in 3.5. In
other words: (#3.5 - #5.5) ÷
#5.5.
- Add Step 7: Multiply your answer
in step 6 by the number from step
5.6. This attempts to account for
the fact that the temperature would
have dropped anyway during the
experiment, even if you hadn't
opened the door. However, even this
method still has all the fine
precision of a jackhammer.
To figure out how much this costs
you for an electric heater, find out
how many kilowatts your heater uses
then multiply it by the number of
minutes you got in step 6, then divide
by 60 minutes/hr., then multiply by how
much you're paying per kilowatt
hour.
If you have a gas or oil heater
you'll have to check with the
manufacturer to see how much fuel it
uses per minute, and with your fuel
company to see how much that amount of
fuel costs.
I have a gas
forced air furnace in my attic for the
upper levels of my home. The
return vents and registers are located on
the ceiling in each room. Isn't the
hot air from the registers just getting
sucked back up into the return vents?
Seems like I need to run the heat alot
longer to get the heat to reach the
floor.. Is this an efficient setup, and if
not, what can I do to make it more
efficient?
-- Jack Sayers,
Nov. 2004
It's not as bad as you think,
but you can definitely make it better.
First, your heater fan should be
powerful enough that the air coming out
of the vents goes almost all the way
down to the floor. If it's only coming
out a few inches then you have a leaky
duct or some other problem with your
system that you should get fixed. Next,
regardless of how hard the air comes
out, you should use ceiling fans to get
the warm air off the ceiling. Just put
them on the lowest speed. If there's a
fan right above you and the breeze is
cooling you off rather than warming
you, then reverse the fan direction so
it blows up, which will bounce the warm
air back down. If you don't have
ceiling fans then either install them,
or get a floor fan and aim it up at the
ceiling to distribute the air.
When I am not
in a room I have developed a habit of
turning off the heat in that room by
turning the vent off. Will this save loads
of on my gas bill or am I wasting my
time? -- Nancy Mandell,
[xxx]@AlpineHomeAir.com., Apr.
'04
Uhh.... wait a minute, you
work for a company that sells home
heating systems and you're asking
me?!
Anyway, let's get our terms
straight. The vent is the
opening that sucks air from the room
back into the heating system. The
register is the opening where
air gets pushed into the room. So it
sounds like you're really talking about
"closing a register", not "turning the
vent off".
The idea of course is that you're
trying to avoid paying to heat a room
you're not using, and hoping the rest
of the house gets warmer quicker so the
thermostat shuts the system off sooner.
Unfortunately, doing so can damage your
heating system, because it makes the
system operate a temperature higher
than it was designed for and work
harder, and as a result it can actually
use more energy. (The
Schebler Co., Mechanical
Air Service, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory) So
keep your registers open. A better way
to save is to shut off the central
system completely and use space heaters
in just those rooms that you're
using.
Somebody told
me it is better to heat your basement so
your first level stays warmer, and you
don't spend any more energy. It would make
more sense to me that keeping the basement
cool (not too cold though so the pipes
don't freeze!) would use much less energy.
What do you think? --
Derrick, Jan. 2004
I think it's ridiculous. You'd
use a lot of energy in the
basement to prevent a little
loss of heat on the first floor.
Obviously most of the energy spent in
heating the basement is spent in
heating the basement.
I'm single and
live alone in a 3000 sq. ft. house. Would
it make sense for me to turn off my
central heat (gas-powered) and use an
electric space heater to heat my room? I
figured I could wear warm clothes while
awake for the short time I am actually
home and awake. I am trying to save
because my utility company charges me
twice what my energy usage is, in the form
of "delivery charge" which means my
typical summer bill is like $30 for energy
use but $100 total. Or, would the electric
heater use more energy than my gas
furnace, to the point of being
ineffective? -- Randy Blake
Jr., 11-01
Excellent question! I love it
when people come up with creative and
unusual ways to cut their electric
bills.
My guess is that you will *probably*
save money by using an electric heater
to heat just your bedroom vs. a gas
furnace to heat the whole house. But
it's easy to find out, before you get
your electric bill: Try it the new way
for a couple of days and note how much
electricity you used (by checking your
electric meter), then compare the use
of that much electricity to the cost of
gas for the same period.
One thing, since you have a central
system, the door to your bedroom has a
gap on the bottom to let the air flow
from your room back to the central heat
system. But if you're heating just your
own room, heat will escape under the
door. To prevent this, install a door
sweep on the bottom of the door, or put
a rolled-up towel there. Department
stores and catalogs actually sell cute
little flexible cloth "logs" to seal up
the gap at the bottom of the door.
By the way, if everyone were as
energy conscious as you are, California
wouldn't have had rolling blackouts
this year and the Gulf War might never
have happened. I'd be interested in
hearing how this experiment works for
you.
Hi! I have
radiant heat (in the ceilings) in my
apartment. Last month's bill said I
consumed over 907 kilowatt hours MORE than
last month, and I was told this is because
the weather was colder. I have two
bedrooms, a living room and a tiny
bathroom and kitchen, not much square
footage. I always keep the heat on at 68
degrees; my room and the bathroom at 60.
Can such an increase be possible? I'm very
afraid of this month. My bill was never
that high for December before. Any advice
for people with electric heat? Note, my
refrigerator is at least 25 years old.
Many thanks for your advice!
-- Carole Koudsi, Massachusetts,
1-01
Good question! First off, we
can discount your refrigerator, because
it's the same refrigerator you had last
month. It may be inefficient, but it's
not suddenly 907 kilowatt hours more
inefficient this month. And it wouldn't
use 907 kilowatt hours total for the
whole month by itself, even if you had
the door open 24/7. (Check out the
How much your
appliances use page.) If your
refrigerator uses 700 watt-hours (the
least efficient part of the range), and
it ran continuously, it would
use only 504 kWh a month (700 watts x
24 hours/day x 30 days).
It would be helpful to know how many
energy your heating system uses. For
two small bedrooms and a living area,
let's make a ballpark guess at 6 kWh
per hour. If you used 907 kWh EXTRA
last month, then you used about 30 kWh
extra per day. At 6 kWh, that means
your heater would have had to be on an
average of 5 hours a day more than the
previous month. (30 / 6). That's
certainly possible as we head deeper
into winter.
A few possible tips: First, if you
have ceiling fans and you're not using
them, use them. Put them on the slow
speed to get the warm air off the
ceiling and down to the living area. If
you don't have ceiling fans, get them.
They'll make a big difference. Second,
if your thermostat lets you turn off
the heat to individual rooms, do so.
Heat only the room that you're in at
the moment. If you can't do that, then
turn off ALL the heat and try using an
oil-filled, plug-in, radiant heater
instead. It runs on electricity, but
since it's intended to heat only one
room at a time, it'll use less
electricity than your system which
heats your whole apartment at once.
Good luck!
Also see my general page
about heating and heating
costs.
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