Any electricians here?

[Arik]

I don't play well with electricity so I don't know much about it. I have a question that may not make sense but here it goes....

How much energy in terms of money does 1500 watts use? To me 3 watts or 300000 watts doesn't mean anything.

Why I'm asking. I'm looking at buying a small home heater to supplement the central heat. Most of my evening is spent in the kitchen/living room area. So I was thinking of buying a small electric heater and turning down the main but I don't know how much electricity it uses as far as money goes. It may not make sense to buy it.

I would run it for a few hours in the evening IF I feel it needs to.

 

[arjay]

Roughly $.18/hr

 

[venomballistics]

you are charged per kilowatt hour.
meaning 1000 watts, used for an hour = one kilowatt hour.

your proposed 1500 watt heater would work out to
1.5kW * 24h * $ per day ( assuming 24 hr use )

 

[Arik]

Thanks.

It would only be used sometimes and for a few hours in the evening

 

[Whitwabit]

I live in a house that's 120 years old ..

A 1500 watt heater isn't very big and won't put out enough heat to warm a larger room .. We put in a wall heater that runs on gas .. I live in the country so we have propane .. it exhaust through the wall .. think ours is 8,000 btu .. heats a 15 x 20 foot room .. much more expensive then the little electric heater but does a much better job .. ours was just under 300 dollars plus the cost to have it installed .. we also use a small fan to help circulate the heat ..

They are called wall heaters or propane/gas wall heaters .. they will do the job where the smaller ones won't heat much ..

The 1500 watt heaters aren't bad if you have them just a few feet away blowing directly on you .. but they won't heat much more then a smaller bathroom ..

 

[Arik]

My house is circa 1996, I have central heat and air. However, because it's circa 1996 it's built to be disposable. By that I mean fast and cheap. I need to take a pic during the day to show you want I mean. When the sun light hits the front door you can see a nice gap between the door and frame that slowly disappears as it runs up. The rear door is almost impossible to open .....all in the winter. Summer time it's fine. ...QUALITY!!!!!

Anyway, I'm not trying to heat a house, just the living room area. The heaters I was looking at are small but all get great reviews for the amount of space they heat.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Whatever your providers kWh $rate is multiplied by 1.5 per hour of use.

Don't know what kind of electric heater or for what size area, but the ones I've used don't do much for anything larger than a bathroom or small bedroom.

In my home the humidity level makes a huge difference. When the humidity percentage dips into the mid 30s it starts feeing cold. A humidifier really helped and doesn't take so much power to operate.

 

[bigwheelzip]

A quick google search shows Philly area consumers paying an average of 15.5 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). This equates to 23.25 cents per hour for a 1500w heater.

When we lived up north, we got those shrink wrap kits for the windows, and re-weatherstripped the doors.

Since you've got 20 years on that roof system of yours, you might want to consider a solar option, if you have a decent amount of unobstructed southern exposure. Prices keep dropping and incentives can be generous.

Now your world revolves around your roof.

 

[Rule3]

Most hair dryers are 1500 watts or More! Look at the oil filled portable heaters. A bit more efficient,

Those electric radiant heaters are like plugging in a clothes iron or hair dryer, they eat electric.

Yes they still use electric but hold the heat a bit longer.

Oil-filled Radiant Heaters - Electric Heaters - Space Heaters - Heaters -  The Home Depot

 

[Fishslayer]

Most hair dryers are 1500 watts or More! Look at the oil filled portable heaters. A bit more efficient,

I keep a 600/900/1500 radiator in the bedroom. Run it at 600W at night & it keeps me plenty warm.

 

[Arik]

Most hair dryers are 1500 watts or More! Look at the oil filled portable heaters. A bit more efficient,

Those electric radiant heaters are like plugging in a clothes iron or hair dryer, they eat electric.

Yes they still use electric but hold the heat a bit longer.

Oil-filled Radiant Heaters - Electric Heaters - Space Heaters - Heaters -  The Home Depot

That why I was asking how much 1500 watts translates to as far as money. If it's 25 cents an hour I have no problem running one for a few hours in one room.

I have one of those oil heaters at work. It does a great job if you're sitting on top of it but even 2 ft away you don't feel it. Although I will say that it's at least 10 - 15 years old so it may have long ago past it's prime

 

[Kevin J.]

When the sun light hits the front door you can see a nice gap between the door and frame that slowly disappears as it runs up..

I would suggest caulk.

 

[arjay]

Yank that old weather strip out of the jamb.Home depot or lowes will have it.Easy to replace.

 

[model70hunter]

Yank that old weather strip out of the jamb.Home depot or lowes will have it.Easy to replace.

And you can find 2900 versions on how to replace it on youtube.

 

[Kevin J.]

I would suggest caulk.

By the way, there may be a waiting period or permit needed to purchase the chaulking GUN, depending on where you live

 

[Big Stick]

Those oil filled radiators work pretty well if you position a smallish fan behind them to circulate a little air. Old cooling fan from a computer would work just fine....

 

[cmore]

get a vornado heater. small cheap and work really well to heat
whole room. But you need to eliminate as best you can incoming
cold air.

 

[finesse_r]

As a general rule electric heaters are especially inefficient and can get expensive if you use them very much. You could set up a propane gas heater that would be far more energy efficient, even if it would be more trouble.

 

[65-2x2]

Electric resistance heating is the most expensive way to do it. A vented, gas space heater would probably be a better solution.

 

[msinc]

As far as temperature goes, there is no such thing as cold...only absence of heat. Cold coming in is not the problem, although I would suggest you get those door seals fixed. Heating a house is more a matter of retaining the heat you are paying for. I would suggest you install more/better insulation. Start with the attic {if you have one}, there isn't too many homes that could not benefit from having another 12-15 inches of insulation blown in.
1996 vintage heat pumps{if that's what you have, you don't really say} were really not that bad, they are pretty efficient down to about 39 degrees outside. When temperatures drop below that they are not as great. One thing to remember about electric heat...it is 100% efficient, because every dime you spend on it you are getting in the room as heat. I live in a pretty big house and I have two gas logs, they work great and neither of them are vented.