Aux heat for home office

[thatguy]

As winter approaches I am seeking some advise... I work from home about 3 to 4 days per week and we have the whole house thermostat programmed to drop to about the upper 60's during the day. Last winter sometimes I about froze in my office (120 sq/ft) and I am looking for the most efficient method of auxillary heat in the office...

I have a small 1500 watt (max) ceramic heater that has variable temperature settings. At 1500 watts it would cost me about $0.11/hour to run or $0.90/day (or there abouts)..

During the winter our average electrical bill is only about $5/day (for all electrical)... So adding another $0.90/day seems high to me - being that I am cheap guy.. LOL

anyone have other suggestions for very efficient auxillary heaters they like? what about those sealed, oil filled radiator types?

suggestions, recommendations welcome

brian

 

[windy acers]

I am buying a CARRIER through the wall heat pump with electric back-up coil and air 15000 btu like in motel rooms . I think the heat pump will be very efichient. $649.00 do a search mod #52cq515-3 ptac heat pumps are good down to 35 degrees and sometimes lower. this is the largest mod you could go to about 8 9 or 10000 btu good luck

 

[KYErik]

Resistance heat all has the same efficiency. The oil filled electric heaters take longer to warm up and awhile cool down after you turn them off. The only advantage is that the heat is more "even".

A heat pump would save you some money on electricity over the long run, but the initial cost for the unit will be greater. I guess you could do the math to see how long it would take it to pay for itself.

 

['Bota Fan]

As winter approaches I am seeking some advise... I work from home about 3 to 4 days per week and we have the whole house thermostat programmed to drop to about the upper 60's during the day. Last winter sometimes I about froze in my office (120 sq/ft) and I am looking for the most efficient method of auxillary heat in the office...

Making a huge assumption you are using either natural gas or propane to heat the whole house. I have a very similar situation with an office in the house, and use a very small gas heater mounted to the wall. They are very inexpensive to purchase (less than $100) from HD and Lowe's, but you have to get a capable installer to extend a gas line to that room.

There are radiant models which heat ceramic bricks in the unit, and others that heat using the blue flame only. Gas heat seems to be very efficient, warms a cold room quickly, and is "warmer" and more comfortable than heat from electricity. Some models have thermostats, others have to be adjusted to your comfort level. Finally, since they use no electricity, they're great for emergency heat during a power outage.


Good luck in your search.

 

[SnowRidge]

Resistance heat all has the same efficiency. The oil filled electric heaters take longer to warm up and awhile cool down after you turn them off. The only advantage is that the heat is more "even".

A heat pump would save you some money on electricity over the long run, but the initial cost for the unit will be greater. I guess you could do the math to see how long it would take it to pay for itself.

What KYErik said. 1500 wats is 1500 watts. There is a lot of hype (polite term) in the marketing of electric heaters. Other than heat pumps, which are more efficient, the rest are just resistance heaters. Look for build quality, multiple settings, and a quiet multi speed fan. I like DeLonghi heaters. I used to heat a boat at dockside with three of them. They worked fine and were well built.

 

[tallyho8]

Inexpensive? An electric blanket. Wrap it around you. Why heat the whole room if you only want to warm yourself?

 

[3RRL]

I wear thermals and a jacket.
Works for me.

 

[dmccarty]

Is electric that cheap in your area? 5.5 cents per KWH?

I pay 10-11 cents, including taxes per KWH. So that would be a bit over $1.20 per eight hour day. After 30 days that adds up. Off hand our power bill averages $3-5 per day. The last bill was $124. Not sure if that was for a 30 day billing period. Adding another $30 would be a big percentage increase. Not to mention $30.

Can you put in a small cheap wood stove in that room? A room that size should not require much to wood/effort to heat with wood

Later,
Dan

 

[RonMar]

Good question, how do you heat the rest of your house? If a gas furnace, then I second a small standalone gas heater in the space. That would probably be the best. As mentioned, electric is electric just about any way you cut it. A woodstove has some mess factor and requires attention and warmup time. It will also require wood gathering, storage and prep if you don't already do so, as well as a fairly extensive chimney installation. But they do provide a nice deep dry heat.

A small pellet stove would be easier to install providing you have an exterior wall to place it near as they can be vented sideways out the wall. Other than dumping in pellets, they are pushbutton operation and some are even controlled by a thermostat. The right model will only require occasional maintenance to empty the ash hopper. They will still consume a little power, 600-700Watts for a few minutes during startup(heating element lights the fire) and 200-400 watts while operating, depending on the model. the pellets are clean and easy to deal with, but it is not as nice a heat as a woodstove, more like that of an electric heater. For your small space though, you might have trouble finding one small enough for that application. 1 Watt is about 3.41 BTU, so your 1500 Watt heater is putting out about 5100 BTU per hour. I don't think I have ever seen a pellet stove that runs that low.

If you use a gas fired water heater, another option might be a small liquid radiator and circ pump that uses hot water from the tank. It would use an existing system and no gas lines to have plumbed. A small circ pump would consume perhaps 50 Watts.

 

[randy41]

just doing some quick math, the way you heat now costs about $50 a year. i think the payback on some of these suggestions would be a few years. buy a sweater.