enenpure heater
- Thread starter tglass
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LD1
Epic Contributor
No it does not save money per-say.
The way portable electric heaters "save" money is, instead of your central heating keeping you WHOLE house at say 74 degrees, a portable heater lets you lower you thermostat down to like 65 and keep JUST the room you are in warm.
So is it cheaper to heat a whole house to 74, or just one room?
That is the basic concept. But those paticular heaters are a waste of money IMO. Electric heat is electric heat. It is all the same efficency. 1Watt = 3.41BTU (i think.) It doesn't matter weather its resistance heat, infarad, quartz, oil filled, etc. You get the same amount of heat per give wattage of input.
In my case, I have a heatpump. Which IS NOT electric heat. It is about 3x more efficent than electric. So 1 wat of input gets me 9-10 BTU in return. An given that my house is only 1 floor and we are commonly in all the rooms, a portable electric heater like the one you mention would actually cost me MORE to keep my house warm because it will give me 3x's less heat while consuming the same amount of energy as my central heating system.
thought about a heat pump too, but what about the turnaround time to see a cost savings on the initial cost? right now I'm using a multifuel stove and paid for it in a year in elec. savings. I often look at turnaround time because at age 60, will it ever pay off in my lifetime? and i'm sure I loose alot of heating and cooling thru the duct work in the attic even though they are insulated.
/pine
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Heat pumps are only effective when the outside ambiant temperature is above 45*...at least that is what I have been told...
LD1
Epic Contributor
Turn arount time or (COP- cost of payback) is hard to figure and can be skewed very easily.
But figure you are probabally looking at about a 3k investment for a heat pump (which will also give you AC).
There are a lot of variables. If you are using a multi-fuel heater, obviously withe a heat pump your electricity usage will go up. But not as much as with electric heat like the edenpure..
Variables include things like what you are burning in your heater?
How much is is costing you?
Are you cutting wood, which you will no longer need to spend as much time and money doing so.
Will you insurance go down without the multi-fuel heater.
How much is not haveing to fix the stove worth to you? Or not having to worry about heat if you go on vacation in the winter?
Again, there are a lot of variables. And the convienences of being able to just set the thermostat have a different value to different folks. Only you can answer that one.
LD1
Epic Contributor
Good point but totally not true. I have a 15 year old 10seer heat pump that is still more efficent than electric @ 20* outside. (meaning I am still getting more than 3.41BTU per watt.) And the technology has came a long way. The newer ones are way more efficent and will operate down to colder temps.
Tglass, where are you located. If you are somewhere like minnesota or canada, a heatpump may NOT be the best choice. It all depends on your climate.
And I forgot to mention im my last post about COP, do you currently have AC. If not, how muck would having that feature be wort to you as well?
Thank you for this thread. I knew that electric was considered to be electric no matter how you delivered the BTU,s. After seeing the "ADs" enough you begin to doubt what you know. Very effective and I am sure some people never realize the savings promised.
thatguy
Elite Member
I did some quick math on my heating costs when I was trying to heat my office and was looking at room heaters.. On average I pay $3.50/day for electricity usage for our entire house and for me to run a heater in my office for 8 hrs would cost close to $1/day (8 hrs) - so i would get more bang for my buck just turning up the house thermostat
Brian
Brian
LD1
Epic Contributor
With current electric rates in my area, most average electric heaters would cost $1.20 for 8 hours. Even the edenpures and whatever. If it plugs into 110v outlet, it is more than likely a 1500 watt heater. Which would consume 12Kw in an 8 hour period. @ 10 cents per kwh, that is 1.2 per day, or about $36 per month.
So when you stop and think how many of them you would actually have to run to keep a house warm, only running them for 8 hours a day, you can see how expensive it would get. Just 5 of them small 1500W heaters only running for 1/3 of a day (8hrs) would rpobabally have a hard time keeping a average house warm in the winter. And yet would cost ~$180 per month to run.
Thank's for everyones input. I live in Texas and have central air and elec. heat. Not near as cold as mid to upper U.S. I know, The house is around 1500 sf. and with two of the bedrooms closed in the winter it brings it down a little bit. Didn't realize heat pumps were so efficient now days, and with the constant problems of my high usage central elec. heat and constant problems with a 12 year old unit I have been looking at alternatives. Also a backup in case the unit I have fails again on a holliday or weekend. Probably start looking into heat pumps as the temp here rarely falls below 20 degrees.
