Are these electric heaters worth it?
“I’ve seen quite a few electric heater ads recently. There was one in the News-Miner about the EdenPURE, Bob Vila’s favorite space heater. Also, the Amish heaters seem really popular these days. Should I get one?” asked a member recently.
A typical 1,200 watt electric heater left on for just four hours each day would add about $32 to your monthly electric bill. The EdenPURE heater consumes about 1.5 kilowatts – 1,500 watts – per hour, so, it would cost a bit more to operate: $40 per month. But remember, this is the additional cost of plugging in just one heater.
If they are such a bad deal, why do electric heaters even exist? Electricity rates in Interior Alaska are higher than in most Lower 48 states. In fact, where rates are less than 10¢ per kWh, electric heaters may be a good option.
Why are our rates higher? One reason is that we do not have the extreme economies of scale up here that they have in the Lower 48. For example, the city of San Francisco’s electric load is about 7710 megawatts. GVEA’s peak load is just more than 200 MW.
Also, we don’t have access to much natural gas or large-scale hydroelectric power, which forces us to use expensive oil. “But,” you say, “the oil to operate my boiler is expensive too.” True. But consider this: 37 percent of GVEA’s power was produced by oil last year.
Rather than run oil through a power plant to convert it to electric energy and then use the electricity to heat elements in an electric heater, why not cut out a step? Just use the oil in your boiler to heat the hot water for your home. Every time you convert one type of energy to another, you lose a bit of efficiency.
Sometimes electric heaters can be useful. An example might be heating a small space for a short period of time. Rather than turn up the thermostat in the entire house, you could plug in a space heater for a couple hours to heat a specific room. However, in the broad scheme of things, it’s probably a better idea to keep the temperature in the house a bit lower, put on a sweater and stay away from electric heater energy guzzlers entirely.
Are these electric heaters worth it?,
oil price is down but my bill is up, using way less than I did a year ago and paying more light bill is about 364 dollars a month with a home & a mother in law cabin on same meter. Using less than a year ago when my bill was 290 ish and the price of fuel oil is down from that time.
Your page here say “Electricity rates in Interior Alaska are higher than in most Lower 48 states. ” < this is not true GVEA is the HIGHEST! in the USA other than a Alaska Villages. Man we need a brake and you guys need some competition in this town.
It does look like our rates are higher than the Lower 48 states now. However, in 2011 when this post was written, the New York area’s average rate (20.5 cents – http://www.bls.gov/ro2/avgengny.pdf) was higher than ours (19.7 cents).
We just signed an agreement to purchase natural gas-fired power from Anchorage (replacing expensive oil-fired power). Our new Fuel & Purchased Power Charge will go into effect December 1 – we’re anticipating a decrease.
I also use an electric heater but for extra warmth for 1 or 2 hours per day in the living room or kitchen. Due to heavy work schedule I go to my house 1 or 2 hours before I get to sleep so its an economic solution to heat the whole house all day. So I put the thermostat at 60 degrees and get the extra heat I want from my space heater when I return Home.
We supplement heat in our kitchen when needed and it is a super money saver for us. A few hours here and there is so much cheaper than adding another heat source which uses fuel. We keep it a bit chilly in the kitchen unless we are at the table and then turn on the small electric heater. We then are very comfortable eating and save fuel. Fuel is super expensive…and so are boilers, zone valves and other maintenance. Exclusive heat with electricity doesn’t make sense, but even the Energy Department admits that turning down the thermostat and supplementing with electric heat as needed can be economical. Plug-in car heaters and the dryer seem to be the biggest energy users for us!
Joe’s comment does not make sense. The way a space heater saves on the energy bill is by turning off, or down, you central heating unit and using a space heater to heat the room you are in most often, like where you watch TV and then mayby your bedroom. You will save even more by turning all of your house heater, protable and central off. No brainer. It is all in how you use them. Space heaters as whole house heaters is nonesense and dangerous. I have a grang child with a wife and child of his own living in a small house, 900 sq ft. and he thought he would heat this small house with space heaters and his heating cost tripled. When he got his bill he nearly passed out — you know, youth out wieghs the wisdom of age. Joe, you need to explain to everyone just how you are using all those space heaters. Please share your secret. Thanks, Dan
your lying….u just want us to believe your bull. i heat my entire house with the electric heaters u say arent economical and my electric bill is 200 a month. my oil bill is sometime 300.00 a month. who do you electric co-ops think you are fooling. we know u also are owned by the oil and gas companies just like our politicians.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for taking the time to post. Honestly, I’m shocked your bill isn’t higher if you heat your home entirely with electric heaters. Often times when members call about high bills, the culprit is an electric heater, especially during the winter months. Another common culprit is plugging in multiple cars for extended periods of time (like all night).
GVEA is a non-profit electric cooperative owned by its members — both you and I being members.