Earlier this winter, I posted about 10 Ways to Lower Your Heating Bill. I took my own advice on the idea of “heating just the space you occupy”, by purchasing a used Infrared Heater as well as a DeLonghi Oil-Filled Radiator for comparison. How did they perform vs each other and do infrared heaters save money? Let’s find out.
Do Infrared Heaters Save Money ? Yes, they CAN!
The operative word here is CAN. First you have to understand the limitations of the heater. So, don’t expect a 1,000 watt heater to pump out the high BTU heat of your central heating system during the coldest winter nights. Ideally, you should set your central heat (remember, this is supplemental heating, not a replacement) to as low of a temperature as you can comfortably handle while moving about the house in your warm winter clothing. For us, this is about 62 degrees. You can then either place the infrared heater centrally in your home and put it on max heat which will keep your central system from turning on as frequently (this is useful for supplementing a higher cost energy source like heating oil), or you can place the heater in the room you will be using primarily throughout the day and aim the heater at yourself. Remember, the way infrared heat works is by heating objects rather than just circulating heated air (like your central air system does).
So, how much did we save this winter? I calculated we saved easily over $500 by using these two heaters. Here are very non-mathematical calculations:
- In December, we burned through 100 gallons of heating oil at a cost of $380
- I bought the heaters at the beginning of January and used them almost continuously in the manner described above. They added a mere $50 total to both my January and February electrical bills combined (yes, we have cheap electricity here in Pennsylvania).
- At the beginning of January, I also bought 150 gallons of oil for $570. Based on the very cold temperatures in January/February, I calculated we should have burned twice that much oil to heat our 2,000 square foot home. It is March 2nd, and we still have oil in the tank from that 150 gallon purchase.
- So, we saved $570 and spent $50 on electricity for a net energy savings of $525.
Now, you could argue that the capital expenditure on the heaters needs to be included in this cost saving equation. I paid $100 for the refurbished Infrared Heater and $75 for the DeLonghi Oil-Filled Radiator for a combined $175.
Infrared Heater vs Oil Radiant Heater
How did these two perform against each other? If I had to pick just one, I’d choose the infrared heater. I found the infrared heater was better at heating a larger space than the oil filled radiant heater. Why? Because, the infrared heater has a fan that pushes the hot air away from the infrared heating elements and circulates this heated air throughout the room, whereas the radiator simply uses the process of convection to heat the air and objects around it (a much slower process). What I ended up doing was to use eaach heater for different tasks. I placed the infrared heater centrally in my home to supplement my central heating system and used the oil-filled radiant heater to heat just one room (office or bedroom) which it did quite well. I never tested either unit, but I have a feeling the oil filled radiator actually uses less power than the infrared unit due to the fact that the infrared unit is always on (if set to maximum temperature) and the oil unit cycles off as the oil reaches a high enough temperature and subsequently cools down during the convection process.
Conclusion:
Infrared heaters will save you money, but don’t expect a miracle heater. And to be honest, if you have natural gas heat in your home your savings will not be near as pronounced as ours. As always, your mileage may vary. Many comfortable warm winters to you!
I have noticed you don’t monetize your blog, don’t waste your traffic, you can earn extra bucks every
month because you’ve got high quality content. If you want to know how to make extra bucks, search for:
best adsense alternative Dracko’s tricks
I appreciate that this publisher has not chosen to cover his wonderful blog with 3rd party ads to make a few dollars a month.
That is quite a comparison there.
very good article. Thank you. I have been debating if I should get Infrare or oil filled.. maybe I should get both then.. Infrare for living room and Oil filled for bedroom.. I use them to replace my central heating system…
infra red is fraud it wont work I got one after getting hit with Hugh bill I got rid of it
and gave it for free to someone
Cheap electricity in Pennsylvania!!!!! where do you live? Around here-Pike County-people can’t afford to heat their homes with electricity-most of us are forced to use propane, wood or pellet stoves due to the prohibitively high cost of electric from Met-Ed, Con-Ed and just about every electric company. I’ve owned one of these infrared heaters for over 7 years-I honestly do not see much of a savings-electric is electric. When we are charged twice-once for actual kilowatt use and as much again for “transmission charge” all you can do is shut down as much electricity as possible, and I still end up with bills 600-800 per month in the winter for a modest sized house.
very nice post
http://www.toyotadomino.com
I like the post because it dealt with the basics of knowing more about space heaters. Here in Phoenix, AZ, where I live, I use one 200 Watt space heater (living room) and another 250 Watt space heater in my bedroom. Believe it or not, that is just about all it takes for be to be comfortable all winter season. And the good part is, I don’t even need to run them 24-hours a day, just basically in the morning for a few hours and that’s it. My electric bill per month from September to March, average’s about $40.00 to $60.00 per month. I have an Electric Stove, Microwave Oven, but don’t use them much, still leaning how to cook. At our Tax Accounting Agency, https://www.phxaccts.com/, besides tax preparations, we try to teach individuals how to save money, and to be more responsible also. In closing, you may not believe it, but most people out here don’t use space heaters. They feel that the inexpensive cost to operate a furnace in the winter is savings enough for them.
Thank you for the easy to understand explaination. We use the infra red heater upstairs in our unheated bedroom. The rest of the home – first floor – we use wood heat. Works out nicely, just used when really cold ouside. Bedroom is comfortable.
Thank you. I have been debating if I should get Infrare or oil filled.. maybe I should get both then.. Infrare for living room and Oil filled for bedroom.. I use them to replace my central heating system…
Thank you!
That is quite a comparison there.
Can you tell us more about this? I’d like to find out more details.
I bought an inrared heater a while back because one of my moms friends raved about how well it worked. I have used other electric heaters in the past, ceramic, oil filled, quartz rod, halogen and standard electric element heaters. I have also used propane and kerosene. I honestly wasn’t overly impressed with the infrared heater. It was no better, and possibly not even as good as most standard heaters. For starters the box type infrared heaters don’t heat the room using infrared technology. The idea behind infrared is it uses a light source too heat objects in the room, much like the sun or a heat lamp does. These box heaters don’t work that way. They use quartz elements inside a shielded box and fan to blow the heat out into the room. So basically you can just get a standard quartz rod heater from walmart and do the same thing. Or any other type of space heater for that matter. Actually the cheap quartz rod heater I got from walmart worked better because the rods were exposed and actually radiated heat, but it also had a fan.
My infrared had trouble actually raising the air temprature of the room. And to get it to a comfortable level I have to crank it way high. Like I have to set it to above 80 in order to get the room above 73. And it also has a large temprature swing before it turns back on. In other words it has a hard time regulating the temprature and keeping it comfortable. It won’t turn on until the room starts to get cold (to me) and it runs until the room is warmer than I want it. It wasn’t some miracle heater by any means. At best it is an average space heater, and it cost more. I wouldn’t buy another one that is for sure. I will give it one credit though. In Eco mode it does work pretty well at knocking the chill of a cold room. That only heats to like 68 degrees though on its thermostat. So the room doesn’t even get that warm. If I was ok with 60 some degrees I wouldn’t need it at all.
I have a little ceramic heater that actually works pretty well and it wasn’t that expensive. As for how much they cost to run I never figured it out or worried about it. 1500 watts is 1500 watts and I have no idea what the BTU rating is on them. I do know it doesn’t heat the room any faster. The most effective heater I have used is a propane heater but those are not that safe to use in a house, especially a small room. Kerosene works well too, but again not that safe and it is dirty. My dad uses natural gas heaters mounted on the walls in his house. He doesn’t even turn his furnace on unless it gets crazy cold, like sub zero temps. But the gas company won’t install those in a bedroom for safety reasons.
We have an extension (350 sq. ft) that was built some years ago that stays colder than the rest of the house (1600 sq ft home). Bought a small 700 watt oil filled heater and a 100 watt foot heater for my wife to attempt to keep the room comfortable. We like the convention type heaters because they are extremely quite, They do the trick, until the outside temperatures gets below 30 degrees. Been looking into those micathermic heaters and was wondering if anyone has used them? I’m worried because the most popular one is only sold by one retailer. The reviews are good but if they were so great why wouldn’t other retailers carry them. I have read good things on infrared. Just dont want the fan noise.
Middle Ages as in Western
the best poets of his era and
bride, Julie d’Angenne.
so expensive material
and 12 thousand Georgian manuscripts
bride, Julie d’Angenne.
55 thousand Greek, 30 thousand Armenian
55 thousand Greek, 30 thousand Armenian
text carrier and protective
Many calligraphers have acquired
Middle Ages as in Western
and 12 thousand Georgian manuscripts
Preserved about 300 thousand.
Manuscript is a collective name for texts
only a few survived.
among them acquired “Moral
bride, Julie d’Angenne.
Europe, and in Ancient Russia
(palimpsests). In the XIII-XV centuries in
(palimpsests). In the XIII-XV centuries in
handwritten books were made,
“Julia’s Garland” (fr. Guirlande de Julie)
consists of the book itself
It is really amazing post with very helpful information. Thank you very much for writing great information about infrared heating.
(palimpsests). In the XIII-XV centuries in
Century to a kind of destruction:
new texts were rewritten