For example, if you are running a space heater in your basement home office for 8-hours a day, then you can expect to pay $1.60 per day. If there are an average of 21-work days in a month, then you can expect to add around $33.60 per month to your electric bill to run your space heater.
Space heaters cost about $0.20, or 20 cents, per hour to run. That's for the most common size – 1,500 watts. The range is 10 cents to 42 cents, or $0.10 to $0.42 per hour for space heaters from 750 watts to 3,000 watts.
The electric space heaters tested at Consumer Reports use 1,500 watts to fully power. Since you should never use a space heater while sleeping, it would cost $2.82 a day to use a space heater 16 hours a day, based on the national average electricity rate.
So I did the research, and even made a free calculator. On average, a 1,500W heater costs around $0.20 per hour to run on high. This adds up to a cost of $1.60 for 8 hours a day, and $48 per month. The running costs depend on your electric heater's power, running time, heat settings, and your electricity price.
Electric space heaters provide heat quickly, and because they run on household electricity, you never have to buy fuel for them. You don't get this kind of convenience for free, however, and you'll notice a hefty hike in your monthly electricity bill if you use one regularly.
Even though they are typically small in size, and often touted as 100% efficient, electric space heaters use a lot of electricity. Most space heaters use on average 1,500 Watts of electricity and cost about 15¢ an hour to operate.
Space heaters do use less energy as compared to using central heat. However, they are not as efficient as space heaters. As such, having a space heater in every room in the home and turning them all on at the same will only cost you more, not less. When you purchased your heater is also a factor.
For example, if you are running a space heater in your basement home office for 8-hours a day, then you can expect to pay $1.60 per day. If there are an average of 21-work days in a month, then you can expect to add around $33.60 per month to your electric bill to run your space heater.
How much electricity does a space heater use? Example (you can use an electric heater running cost calculator below for different wattages/kWh prices): If we assume the price of electricity is $0.1319 per kWh, a 1,500-watt electric space heater will cost; $0.20 to run per hour. $4.80 to run per 24 hours (day).
If your heater is equipped with a good thermostat and you do not heat the room to a warmer-than-normal temperature, you can save money by using an electric space heater in a room you're in and keeping the rest of the house chillier.
The Energy Department estimates that the cost to heat an entire home with electric space heaters cost 43% more than a gas furnace. Using a space heater in your bedroom only while you sleep is a practical way to use a space heater and won't make much of a dent in your electricity bill.
According to research from Energy Helpline, keeping your radiators on all night will cost you an extra £10.80 a day. Over the course of a week, that would cost you £75.60, and if you did it all month you could be paying out a whopping £335.
For every degree that you lower the thermostat can help you save up to 1% on your heating costs. So, if you turn down the heating eight degrees for about eight hours a night, you can enjoy a saving of approximately $180 annually on your heating.
Electric room heaters are all expensive to run and not appropriate as a main heat source. Chose a type of heater depending on how you intend to heat the room, because otherwise you may have a high running cost but not feel an increase in comfort from the heat.
Gas is generally much the cheapest form of heating, but its cost depends on a number of factors, including your supplier, tariff and boiler.
Also, the maximum heat most small space heaters can safely produce is about 5,100 Btuh (Btu per hour). Homes typically have central heating systems with a capacity of 50,000 to 100,000 Btuh, so obviously a single space heater can't heat an entire house.
Regardless of the motivation, space heaters simply aren't a long-term solution for home heating needs. Space heaters are extremely dangerous. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that between 2009 and 2013, heating equipment caused more than 56,000 home fires in the United States.
It's definitely more efficient to heat one room instead of the whole house, even if you're using an antique space heater.
Heaters are a great way to keep your home warm during the winter, but they can be costly. Space heaters use use on average 1,500 Watts of electricity and cost about 15¢ an hour to operate. It only takes 8 hours of continuous use per day for one month before you start seeing these expenses add up in monthly bills.
It took about an hour to raise the room temperature significantly, but if the heater is aimed directly at you, you'll feel plenty warm. The Vornado, 12 1/4 inches high, took only about 35 minutes to raise the room temperature by 10 degrees, although the air that came out didn't feel all that hot.
You can determine the right size by using heater wattage output. As a rule of thumb, you'll need roughly 10 watts of heating power for every square foot of floor area in the room. This means that a 1,500-watt heater can be the primary heat source for an area measuring up to 150 square feet.
A modern space heater can be very safe to keep on for long unsupervised periods of time, including while sleeping. Be sure your heater is certified by one of the three major testing organizations and has features like automatic shutoff, tip over protection, a shut off timer, and adjustable thermostat.