How on earth can one small space heater make my power bill go up $50 a month?

Question

3 months in a row? I tried without it and it goes down 50 bucks.

Answer 1

No matter what kind of electric heater you get, the efficiency is exactly the same: 100% How the heat is delivered can be different, but the efficiency is still 100%.
Look at the rating of the heater in watts. Most are 1500 watts, so that is 1.5Kw per hour. Let's say you run it 24/7, so that's 720 hours per month...take that times the Kw's and you get 1080 KwH per month. If your cost per KwH is 10 cents, that's over a hundred bucks per month.

What kind of central heat do you have? If it's gas and the furnace is a good one, that is going to be cheaper than electric heat in most areas.
The only way you will save any money using electric heaters like that is if you turn down the heat everywhere else, and only use the electric heater when you are in that room. Closing the doors to isolate that room would help a lot, too.

As far as the way the heat is delivered with electric heaters, there are two main ways they do it. Convection, where it gets hot and heats up the air around it. That hot air rises and is replaced with cooler air, which is then heated up and round and round it goes heating up all the air in the room.
The other way is radiant heat, which is the same kind of heat you feel when you face a fire. It's long wave infra-red radiation, and it doesn't heat the air, it heats what the radiation hits and is absorbed by. Some electric heaters are a combination of both, like the "resistant wire" type that has wires that get red-hot and a fan in it. Some of the heat is radiant, some is forced convection.
Radiant heaters can save money over a convection type, because you can point them at what you want to heat...like yourself. Quartz type heaters with exposed tubes do it like that, they are cheap, light and easy to move around with you. But like ANY electric heater, when it's on, it's drawing whatever the watt rating is, and the meter is spinnin'. This doesn't matter if it's oil filled, edenpure, convection, radiant, baseboard...the conversion of electricity to heat is 100%.

Also, it doesn't matter what the voltage is...if it's delivering the same wattage. 5000 watts is 5000 watts, whether it's 12V, 120V or 240V. Amps=Watts/Volts Your meter doesn't measure amperage, it measures watts per hour.
The only advantage to using higher voltage is the wire carrying the current can be smaller. If the amperage is too high for the wire, the wire will get warm. So voltage is raised to reduce the amperage, and smaller wire can be used to carry the same amount of power (watts) That's why high voltage lines can be so small, because they operate at high voltage.

Answer 2

Yeah, I'm not surprised either, they are very expensive machines, even the most efficient ones.

Apparently you are trying to heat the room, or a small part of it, but it is a lot cheaper to just heat the people inside the room with warmer or more layers of clothing, slippers, insulated or thermal underwear, and the like.

Down comforters, flannel sheets, and thermal blankets are a really toasty way to dress your bed. You might also try a feather bed to keep you warm from underneath. These may be an investment but they don't keep recurring on the electric bill. A trick, don't know what you think of this but you will stay warmer...is sleep with little or nothing on when you have any poofy or thermal items on your bed. These items are made as such (poofy on the inside, or with little holes in the fabric) to create air pockets that trap air and warm it with your body heat. So if you have clothes on, you are actually keeping the bedding from doing its best wor instead of helping to warm your own bed. This is exactly the opposite of what most people do to stay warm at night which is to pile on the pajamas.

Also make sure you have plenty of insulation. Maybe at this point in the year it isn't the right time to correct the problem. But you can always put plastic on the windows (those kits that you use your hairdryer) and put something in front of drafty places in the walls, under doors, etc.

You can always just "move out" of that room for now as well. Take what you need from there, and do those things someplace else if you can. Block off that room, and wait until spring to use it again.

Answer 3

One small space heater draws a tremendous amount of energy! If you can live without it, you would be better off financially. I learned the exact same way you did when I received an energy bill that was almost double the norm! Keep your heat (that is if you have gas or electric) to 68 and put a nice warm sweater on if you want to spend less. Have a great evening! Annie

Answer 4

JJ doesn`t want to bring up anything that has to do with the pending "Increase" in everyone`s power bill ; why? Because hidden in the Cap & Tax Bill there is a provision that gives guaranteed monthly checks to those who cannot afford the 90% increase over the next few years !! Why do we think Obama and his cronies want everything passed ASAP ? So we won`t have a chance to know what is in the bill ! Again , why did the democrats sneak a 300 page "amendment" into the Bill @ 03:09 AM while no one is watching ? It is just another entitlement government program that spreads or funnels the working citizens wealth to the non workers so as to make everyone equal serfs and lackeys` under the socialist rule of Obama ! Jesse Jackson doesn`t the public to know that he will be one of the "favored ones` that will get another check from the government , free , while the rest of us have to pay the 90% increase in our electrical cost !

Answer 5

Best advice, if it is an older model, Ithink newer models are more energy savers, some will say it on the box, they may be around $10 - 15 more than cheapy heaters. But we picked up two and put them on each end of the area we wanted to heat so they each don't click on often and it wasn't bad on the electric bill. the more they ignite to heat the more they consume electricity - with two of them the censors will not click the igniters to heat as often for you and you can still be in a 70some comfortable heated area -- turn them off at night as you sleep to keep safe.

Answer 6

Most space heaters are 1500 watts and run off of 120 volts. Anything that runs off of 120 volts uses almost double the amount of electricity as a 240 volt heater. A 5000 watt heater at 240 volts will run at 22 amps. Your 1500 watt heater will run 12 amps at 120 volts. If you ran that same 5000 watt heater on 120 volts, Instead of 22 amps, it would be about 42 amps. 120 volts is not efficient. This is why other countries don't use it.

Answer 7

Space heaters are so costly. You would probably be better off turning your heat up a few degrees than to run the heater. So many fires are caused by the space heaters also. Throw it as far as you can.

Answer 8

They are called space heater for a reason. They are meant to heat a small space, not a house. Plus if you don't keep a eye on them they will burn your house down. Especially if you use a extension cord...

Answer 9

It consumes electricity to run it! A lot of electricity! It is producing heat! If you run it a lot, it can easily add $50 to your bill.

Answer 10

A space heater that's VERY inefficient.