splashhopper Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 Ok, so with the crazy hikes in electricity prices the last two years, I have been thinking about using the three oil filled electric heaters that I brought home from the trailer I no longer have. We have electric baseboard heaters and do our best to keep them turned down as low as possible during the day when we are not here and to comfortable in the rooms we use at night time. Are there any OFC'ers here who have tested the difference in cost of running these two types of heaters in their homes or cottages. My gut says, we could turn the heat way down on the base boards and use one of the oil filled units in the TV room at night and if we are real ambitious, walk it upstairs to the bedroom it is needed in thereafter. All the caulking and weather stripping is in good condition around the doors and windows. I am also considering doing the plastic window wrap on the north side of the townhouse as well. Any thoughts and especially Experience and Knowledge of this is appreciated. Thanks Splashhopper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 (edited) I have 2 Oil Filled Rads that I use in late fall and early spring when I don't want to run our oil fired boiler for our in floor heating. They will use a fair amount of power and they do take time to get up to temp so turning them on and off frequently isn't that practical. For us, once they are up to temp. (I set them at 23c) they keep our 1600 sq/ft warm during those transitional periods. Edited December 9, 2010 by Old Man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.brock Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 I'm interested in what people will say about this too, I have to heat my cottage basement with electric heat I think whatever type of electric heater you have, baseboard, ceramic, oil filled rad etc, all will put out the same heat for the wattage used, a baseboard will heat up quicker, but an oil filled rad will still give off heat after it's shut off get a wood stove, a little work and the heat's almost free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 (edited) the oil filled rad is considered a constant steady heat and is being pushed for people who have smart meters from their power company heat them up during lower cost hours and enjoy the heat during part of the high price hours but the bottom line is it takes same many watts to heat the btu's and and no math or gadgets are going to change that Edited December 9, 2010 by Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookinforwalleye Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 Ok, so with the crazy hikes in electricity prices the last two years, I have been thinking about using the three oil filled electric heaters that I brought home from the trailer I no longer have. We have electric baseboard heaters and do our best to keep them turned down as low as possible during the day when we are not here and to comfortable in the rooms we use at night time. Are there any OFC'ers here who have tested the difference in cost of running these two types of heaters in their homes or cottages. My gut says, we could turn the heat way down on the base boards and use one of the oil filled units in the TV room at night and if we are real ambitious, walk it upstairs to the bedroom it is needed in thereafter. All the caulking and weather stripping is in good condition around the doors and windows. I am also considering doing the plastic window wrap on the north side of the townhouse as well. Any thoughts and especially Experience and Knowledge of this is appreciated. Thanks Splashhopper I have been experimenting as well with supplemental heat having recently moved into a house with EBB`as the heat source,the house is small 1100 sq.ft. or so on two stories and there is a gas fireplace in the basement that I set at 62 so the basement don`t freeze. The one real advantage of EBB`s is that you can zone heat and for us this works because there is only two of us in the house, probably not practical for a family with children. Based on past records from the previous owners the equal billing was 200/month for hydro which isn`t bad but who knows what that will be when TOU pricing comes into play next year. For the last couple of days I have been using two Seabreeze Thermaflow heaters on the mainfloor and they are able to maintain a nice comfortable 68-70 degrees running on the 1000 watt setting and of course we reduce the thermostat to 63 or so for overnite and when nobody is in the house, we have all the EBB`s on the second floor basically turned off and we warm the master with a portable for a couple of hours before bedtime. My feeling is the cost maybe a little cheaper with the portable heaters but I think the real advantage is the rooms feel much more comfortable using the portables, I find with the EBB`s there are always warm spots and cold spots the heat never seems to be evenly distributed. My airsource ac/heatpump will be installed next week and I believe this will provide similar heat as one of the portable units which will help in heating the upstairs and deliver it cheaper, I am thinking the heatpump will really shine in the shoulder months of April,May,Sept,Oct and part of March and November which should help lower the average cost greatly. I should have a better picture of what is better from a dollar standpoint in a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misfish Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 your avatar warms me up.LFW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookinforwalleye Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 your avatar warms me up.LFW. I had to change it from my beautiful bleu blanc et rouge crest because some crazy guys on OFC threatned not to take me fishing next September either that or they were going to throw me out of the plane!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Bob Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 Do what she said...."get some wood"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookinforwalleye Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 I had to change it from my beautiful bleu blanc et rouge crest because some crazy guys on OFC threatned not to take me fishing next September either that or they were going to throw me out of the plane!!! There thats better!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplumma Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 The way you heat the house if it is based on electricity a Watt and the BTU are a constant due to physics to convert a watt into 1 BTU does not matter if it is a coil,light or infrared. You can heat your house using 15 100watt light bulbs and be just as warm as a $500.oo 1500 watt heater. The way to beat the heat game is either to find a fuel that is cheaper or slow down the consumption of BTU's. Wood is one of the cheapest ways to heat a house if you have access to it for free or a discounted rate. Natural gas is also an option if the price is not to much also. Here in the States it is cheaper for me to heat my house with Propane that I buy in the summer at $2.60 a gallon (96,000 Btus) versus the price of electricity .20 cents per Kwh or (28 KW per gallon $5.60) (includes taxes and fees). The second option is to stop the intrusion of cold air by insulation or wind barriers (plastic over the windows). You can do some very simple things to help 1. Add weather strips on the door sweeps. 2. Limit exterior door opening. 3. Remove snow from touching the house and roof. 4. Automatic Set back thermostats that are programed to raise the house back up to temperature on the discounted hydro rate times. 5. Close off the attic louvers and any crawlspace ventilation for the winter. 6. Close and LOCK windows for a positive seal. 7. Wear a sweat shirt or sweater indoors. These are not in any order but some of them will reap more savings than others but all will help you get to your goal of spending less money for heat. From the Sunny Southern USA Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irishfield Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 I like sweater gals Art.. but skimpier stuff is nice tooo.. I like my thermo at 72F and the odd fire for clothes peeling... Looks like someone snuffed walleye's avatar.. so the temp dropped a bit in this thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernie Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 (edited) Art knows what he is talking about. Hydro converted to heat energy is the same no matter what you use. A heater with a fan is actually less efficient as it uses power to run the fan. A plain baseboard heater is as efficient as you can get. One thing I will argue with Art on is closing off attic ventilation. Condensation will accumulate inside the attic and freeze. When it melts it runs into the insulation. Edited December 9, 2010 by Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookinforwalleye Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 I like sweater gals Art.. but skimpier stuff is nice tooo.. I like my thermo at 72F and the odd fire for clothes peeling... Looks like someone snuffed walleye's avatar.. so the temp dropped a bit in this thread... I apologize if I offended anyone with the previous avatar,back to old one that everybody loves so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irishfield Posted December 9, 2010 Report Share Posted December 9, 2010 (edited) Probably only Spiel.... while turning his rod he couldn't handle the hottie in the background.... Can you PM me the full size pic?? Spiel probably saved it before toasting it .. Edited December 9, 2010 by irishfield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beans Posted December 10, 2010 Report Share Posted December 10, 2010 (edited) Unless you have access to free wood. it is not cheap to burn at close to $300 per bush cord... besides being a lot of work stacking, hauling in to house and splitting for kindling... Edited December 10, 2010 by Beans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofish4me Posted December 10, 2010 Report Share Posted December 10, 2010 I got the wrong impression from the title of this thread. Hahaha The only feller I know with an oil filled radiator, does so to prevent antifreeze from getting into the oil on his old diesel tractor. Hahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplumma Posted December 10, 2010 Report Share Posted December 10, 2010 Art knows what he is talking about. Hydro converted to heat energy is the same no matter what you use. A heater with a fan is actually less efficient as it uses power to run the fan. A plain baseboard heater is as efficient as you can get. One thing I will argue with Art on is closing off attic ventilation. Condensation will accumulate inside the attic and freeze. When it melts it runs into the insulation. I should clarify the louvers may not be part of the building process so far up North. Here we have a 2 ft panel that is on the ends of the house or a thermostat controlled fan thru the roof to get rid of summer heat (these get closed). The eves that go around the house under the gutters should always be open to vent the condensation. Thanks for the clarification Bernie. Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted December 11, 2010 Report Share Posted December 11, 2010 we just upgraded the insulation in the attic, we had 8 inches of blown in insulation for a r20 rating and had 10 more inches blown in for an r50 rating. We noticed a difference right away, the upstairs part of the backsplit was always colder than the rest of the house and now it is nice and warm up there. We had 900 sq ft and the cost was $850. I'm not sure if you can buy the pink insulation they blow in , but if you could buy it and you have enough space in your attic you might be able to do it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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