I can generally keep the temp near 60 degrees without central heat on, as it is pretty well insulated and has lots of windows facing South east or Southwest... But, I have a 12 foot Schefflera tree that I struggle with every winter, as it really needs to maintain 60-65 degrees or its leaves start dropping precipitously. I'm keeping a space heater blowing out just in front of it, set on 60 degrees. While it does cycle off (generally all day), it does tend to run much of the night. The other space heater in the bedroom upstairs. hardly ever even kicks on at night (likewise set on 60-62).

So, while I am likely saving a lot on gas, I have a feeling my electric bill may still be pretty high... I'm wondering if I'd be better to bump up the central heat just a tad more to avoid the space heater downstairs from kicking on all night... (what I do for my plants and animals...LOL )

I turned the thermostat down to 50 after I got both space heaters going so I'd get an idea as to what the house temp will be when just using the heaters. According to The weather Channel website, it's 13 degrees outside.

One is in the office where I'm at and the other is in the kitchen. Both are set at 750 watts. I'm comfortable here in the office, wearing a jacket, and the heater here has cycled off and on a couple of times already.

But my house just stays too cold in the winter to grow them. Maybe if I'm ever so old I have to have more heat, I'll try again. Until then I'm sort of stuck. I even dry my laundry indoors in the winter on a line in the utility room except for huge heavy things like blankets, etc.

humidity, I couldn't keep them from dropping all their needles and turning brown...I probably over-watered or something, but every time I see them brought out at Christmas time, I just sort of cringe, knowing how unlikely they'd survive the season--at least with me.

They are very pretty, though.

The space heater would top that list. We have to have the generator on to run it all.

We do use the eco-fan, though, and really like it.

You can use it on a wood stove or regular gas stove (if you get a cast iron pan or grill to sit it on).

http://www.caframo.com/hearth/hearth_products.php

Such a device would probably work very well over at my other place given that the house is small and the kitchen is right next to the living room.

It's really a remarkable little device.

But the Ecofan would be much simpler as the gas stove is already there and I believe the largest top burner is rated at about 10k output. The price for an Ecofan is cheaper to a vent free space heater and one doesn't incur the cost of running another gas line.

The smaller Ecofan pushes up to 100 cfm of air which is comparable to what one wants out of a standard 6" diameter heat run supplied by a central heating system.

I'll have to keep this in mind if I ever move back there for any period of time during the heating season.

I don't have a woodstove, just a dual fuel floor heater that will take care of the whole house if I need it to. The iron pan would make the eco fan kick on sooner, wouldn't it? Thanks!

more efficiently.

Certainly worth a try.

It seems that if you are using an electric space heater, that would definitely be an option to try.

An electric space heater using 750 watts produces close to 2600 btu/hr.

.
.
.

110/120 is very inefficient - UK was wise to be mostly 220/240, approx 3x more efficient than 110/120.

Space heater of any wattage will cost you about 3x as much for the same amount of heat if you are using 110V.

There's a good reason that houses with the main heat source being electric use 220/240 volts for the heat.

You couldn't SELL a house heated with 110 - the costs would be astronomical!

Also 220/240 is efficient enough it rarely uses fans - so it's QUIET;

there's a bonus imo.

CBAYER - yup them EcoFans are great - I got two of them on top of my airtight wood stove.

These are mine - Model 810



Absolutely worth the $$ - I paid $100 each, but that was locally

- they can be bought cheaper online or at larger distributors.

And, they are whisper quiet - never hear them unless the stove is really cranking -

even then, it's just a whisper.

Love them!

CC

But you bring up a good point about 240 being more efficient. One could install a 240 circuit to a room or rooms where one would like to use a 240v space heater.

The same thing applies to small a/c units. The 240v models are more less expensive to operate for the same number of btu/hs an hour as 110v models.

.
.
.

Not hard to tap into those circuits - no major wiring required.

Just gotta keep track of which circuit uses how much wattage so ya don't overload existing fuses/breakers.

I just hooked up one 500W and one 750W baseboard heaters to my hot water breaker - not directly to the breaker,

but fed off the tank wiring itself (closer, less wiring).

Yep - I did the math - the breaker will handle the extra 1250W load.

Did this 2 months ago - everything is fine.

AND WARMER!



CC

ps: Hydro cost? about 4 - 6 kw/day (I read my hydro meter every morning - YEAH - I DO!) so 40 - 60 cents a day

Where I live, certain electric appliances such as, but not limited to, water heaters, ovens, and dryers must be on their own dedicated circuits.

.
.
.

It works.



CC

ps: gov't peeps ain't the sharpest pencils in the pack - like that's news!

If I'm running wire from my office to the water heater, I might as well just continue on to the circuit breaker so the 240v space heater(s) can be on their own dedicated circuit.

.
.
.

If my breaker can handle 4,000 watts, and total maximum load is 3,000 watts - what is the danger?

Besides, even IF total possible load was over the breaker's limit, the breaker would disconnect.

That would be a warning sign; also, in all my "illegal" wiring I have done,

I've never had a breaker flip.

Never.

I should add, on more than one occasion while I was "invading" properly approved up to code installations I found loose connections, chafing wires, insecure power boxes and more.

I am a licenced auto/truck mechanic - and in my years I have seen pretty shoddy work by other licensed "professionals" in my trade.

Electricians are no different, there are good ones, and there are irresponsible and sloppy ones.

Actually - I've found breakers where the wires were on the same side of the breaker!

SO THOSE BREAKERS WERE NOT DOING ANYTHING!

I repaired the licensed, "professional" work.

And I sleep better.

CC

I don't really know how it does what it does, but it does it really well.

I got mine for around $80 online. It's been tossed around and used a lot and still works flawlessly.

.
.
.



Yep,

that's a picture from my couch a few weeks ago.

Thought you'd like to see that.



CC

That looks so cozy.

I'm not sure I will ever use my again, now that I have moved further south.

But I will continue to recommend them.

Enjoy and stay warm this winter CC!!!

Or more accurately watt-hours which is amps x volts x time. A kilowatt hour used at 100% efficiency will run a 1000 watt heater for one hour.

120 volts at ten amps is the same amount of power as 240 volts at five amps and will provide the same amount of heat.

Higher voltage does have a slight advantage since smaller diameter wire is needed to carry a given amount of watts, to get 1000 watts at 12 volts for instance requires 1000/12 or 83.33 amps which is going to take some roughly pencil sized copper conductors to carry reasonably efficiently.

A 12 volt electric heater that uses 83.3 amps is going to provide as much heat as a 120 volt heater that uses 8.33 amps, the wire connecting the heater though needs to be a little more than three times as large in diameter (the square root of 10).

With taxes and fees incorporated, I'm paying 0.045 cents/kwh...

So, this article was very helpful. The "plant" (big Scheffler tree)- dedicated space heater downstairs is mostly cycling off during the day, but runs pretty continuously overnight, so I think the author's estimates are pretty accurate and it probably does make sense for me to continue to turn off central (gas) heat during the day, turn it on to about 58-60 degrees overnight and rely on a rarely active space heater upstairs in the bedroom and the main one downstairs as long as outside temp is above the single digits.

If all else fails, I have a very warm pup! LOL

they use here. ... been able to keep elec. bill under $100 even w/central air cond. I kicked on the central heat today, and one space heater. I'll see what happens. I can read the elec. meter hr by hr the next day on the elec. co. web site.

That's been handy for me to see what costs what. Looks like there's about two feet of insulation in the attic. If I can keep the total elec. bill under 100/mo., that will work for me. I've been amazed at how cheap it is. Way cheaper than New England when I had oil heat, man did that cost a lot.

Temp/wind chill outside today is 34 F, but that's cold for here. Gulf coast.

by advertising thinking paying more somehow saves on electricity. As you say, it's the watts that count ... and some of the reasonably priced heaters work extremely well. The more expensive ones are just pieces of furniture, and others are just gussied up with worthless gadgets.

Also, sometimes, people use several space heaters ... but sometime turning on the main furnace at a low setting is cheaper. What I sometimes do is turn on the main heater at a low setting to get the chill off, and then a small space heater set about the same as you have where I'm at ...

The house I moved to now is way smaller than my previous house ... there are lots of benefits IMO to having a small house in today's economy. I don't need all the glitter anymore, just survival.

But everyone should remember that if non-code work even contributes to a fire, your insurance is worthless. Also, if you ever go to sell a home, buyers can't get loans.