Space heaters

I was starting to think I wasn't getting your discussion notifcations! I've missed seeing you around here. I haven't used a space heater since I lived in a small trailor by myself about 9 years ago. But my trailer was so small, that the space heater always blew a fuse. I had no heat that winter. And that was a very snowy winter! lol

I bought one a while back and have only used it once or twice....my living room is always so cool that I wanted something to take the chill off in there when I am in the room...most of the time I am upstairs in my craft room....So I can't tell you if I saved any money ...yet anyway.

I use a space heater in my "office/craft room" because I can turn down the heat from the furnace for the rest of the house and just warm the room I'm in. That saves money, but I'm not sure that it would save money to use more than one space heater to keep the rest of the house warm. If you just use one to warm the immediate area, it might be worth it.

Well, 2 yrs. ago we used the Space heaters more than our regular heater and actually ended up not saving anything at all. But then again I think a lot of the problem was we lived in a Condo that for some reason was reading a lot higher than it should as our Utility bill was as high or higher than the people living in 2 bedrooms who were home all the time. Since moving to our house our Utility bill is NO WHERE near as high, just we now have high Garbage and Sewer to contend with along with everything else.

not really because you are just paying more in electricity. we just set it fairly low and wear lots of sweaters.

Now I'm a little worried. Space heaters are our only option. We don't have the central heat, though I wish we did. I'm sure that would cost a fortune. Without space heaters, we'd freeze, just like last winter. Last year, we relocated from Florida where the winters are cold but manageable. And, the state we are living in now is brutal cold and wet during early winter and it was a nightmare this past winter. We had space heaters, but they did nothing to keep anyone warm. This past month, I woke up thinking how I needed to buy even more space heaters. I was just so tired of being cold constantly and piling on more clothes and still being cold. I went online and checked prices on Walmart space heaters and found one for less than $20. Hubby went down to the local Walmart and bought three. And, instantly we were so much warmer. I have never been so thankful to be warm in my whole life. When I was growing up, I lived in a house that had barely no heat and the heat that was in the house didn't reach my room. So I was constantly sick with weird flu like illnesses, same for my brothers. We were all sick, all the time in the winter time and missed so much school. And, then now that I'm all grown up with a daughter of my own, I have to keep her warm. And, this winter I was determined to keep us all warm, no matter the cost. I don't really care if it costs $300 a month to keep my family warm with space heaters, I'm still going to do it. I'm just happy to be warm. I'll worry about being a skin flint later on during the spring box fan season.

We have no heat on the 2nd floor. We had a space heater in the West and our bedroom there. We swithced to a more energy efficient space heater and a bedroom on the eastern side of the 2nd floor. I'd say it saves about $20 a month.

I haven't seen my bill yet to know if it's helped or not. I don't have the heat above 65 during the day but if I feel a chill I'll close off all the other rooms and turn the space heater on for an hour or two. I was thinking about getting some heated blankets to sit on but we have tons of other blankets we could cover up with.

I do not have any form of heating because of where live but our electricity is SIX times the price of what you pay in the USA so my bill is about US$300 per month just for electricity. Washing machine, dryer (not used often) energy saving lights everywhere, TV's and one computer. It is awful. I am so sorry that you have bad winters. I hate the cold as I remember it too well from my childhood. We had coal fires!!!! No heating in the bedrooms at all. In the last 40 years I have only visited the U.K. twice in the winter because of emergencies. Every other trip was made in the summer. I am so sorry that business is not good for you. I hope that you and your children will manage o.k. Have not received any posts from you in ages! Many blessings

We actually learned the hard way last year that we weren't able to save money by using a space heater because the cost of the electricity was almost more than our overall gas usage. That said, what we have found helps us to reduce our gas bills during the winter is to do flat rate or budget plan for our gas bill. That way instead of having the brunt of that bill all in a couple of months throughout the year, we instead have it spread out all over the year and we know how much we are paying every month.

My husband and I bought a pair of Honeywell convection heaters while we were living in an apartment that had natural gas heat. It was a lot less expensive for us to use those in the rooms we were in rather than let the gas furnace run all the time. Our gas bill was around $250-$300 that December, but after we started using the electric heaters it dropped to around $100. Our electric bill only increased about $20, so the heaters were a great investment. We have electric baseboard heaters now, but still run the convection heaters because they're more energy efficient.

I can tell you we have never saved money by using an alternative heat source. It either hits you with electricity or gas. We've found the best way to save on bills is unplugging everything you can. Cell phone chargers, computers, etc. Get the new energy saver light bulbs. Install updated doors. Replace windows with the more energy efficient ones. Kick the kids out. Don't wash partial loads of dishes or laundry. I know you've probably heard all this before but it bears repeating.