How Much Does it Cost to Run an Electric Heater
Posted: Monday, January 24, 2011
by Dave Baumert
Portable electric heaters are perfect for heating smaller areas, rooms or garages. There are basically four types: quartz, infrared, ceramic and wire element. Infrared have no fan thus no moving parts where the other three have fans to force air past their heating elements. These require no venting and can be used in enclosed areas. They are 100 percent efficient, that is , they output 100 percent of the energy that is input. Unlike vented gas heaters which exhaust a certain percentage of hot gas (energy) outdoors. They are relatively inexpensive to operate. Most have safety tip over devices built into them. Any abrubt movement or if the unit tips over then it will shut itself off. They come in a wide variety of outputs that can besized for any room or area. They can function as a "zone heater" as well. This means that you can dial down the main furnace or heater while you are occupying other areas with the portable heater. Your primary heat bill will be considerably less. Below is some information on how to calculate the cost to operate an 1500 watt heater.
Multiply the watts of the heater (usually found on the back of the unit or in the owners manual) by the Kilowatt per hour cost divided by one thousand. Below is an example for a 1500 Watt heater:
1500 W x .093503 KWH / 1000 = $0.14
This heater would cost about 14 cents per hour to operate or $3.37 a day. That is, if it runs continuously. Most heaters have thermostats and will cycle on and off thus reducing the total cost.
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