Natural gas is likely to prove the cheapest way to heat a home if you have this heating option available to you where you live. Although prices have risen, natural gas is the least costly form of space heating. This is followed by electricity, propane, and heating oil, from the next cheapest to the most expensive.
Consider a Ductless Mini-Split to Heat Your Home
Don't pack on the throw blankets; instead, choose a mini-split air system to help keep each room in your home warm and cozy. A ductless mini-split system is cost-effective, energy-efficient, and can heat each room in your home.
Using an indoor heater
If you don't have a boiler or don't want to use central heating all day, there are various types of electric room heater that will heat one room. These include bar heaters, convector heaters, oil-filled radiators, fan heaters and halogen-filled heaters.
Combustion heaters are a great option for heating your home without power. Combustion heaters are indoor heaters that don't require electricity, utilizing propane instead of electricity. If you need heat without electricity or gas, kerosene radiant heaters should have everything you need.
That means natural gas heat costs about 75% of the price of electric heat over a year for a home. If you use natural gas heating and get a gas bill in the winter, it should in principle be less than the portion of the electric bill used for heating should you have used electric heating.
Using a space heater to target rooms you're using instead of heating the entire house is a surefire way to trim money off of your monthly energy spend. Space heaters cost about 20 cents per hour to operate, give or take, which is a whole lot cheaper than central heat for a home of almost any size.
If you have a larger home
In larger homes, a small room may be worth heating individually if it's less than a quarter of the size of the whole house, although there's less benefit if your house is well-insulated.
Gas Heaters are Cost Effective
Gas is also a low cost, convenient fuel, meaning the operating costs of a gas heater are generally lower and more affordable than pulling energy from the electricity grid. If you plan on leaving a heater on all day, a gas heater may be cheaper to run^.
Metal Can, Alcohol and Toilet Paper Emergency Heater
Pour the alcohol over the toilet paper, so it is just saturated. Then light the alcohol on fire. The alcohol is the fuel, and the toilet paper is like a wick in a candle. The emergency heater can burn for over an hour and does an excellent job of heating the air.
Cracks in Walls, Windows and Doors
Around 38% of heat loss in your home comes from cracks in your walls, windows and doors (often invisible to the naked eye).
Infrared heaters provide radiant heat from their hot surface and heat objects directly, including the occupants of a room. If you need quiet, an infrared heater will be better than a ceramic heater that works with a fan. It's also a better choice for a poorly insulated room.
As a general rule, heating your home with a natural gas furnace is the cheapest way to keep warm through the winter months. Electricity is usually significantly more expensive than gas, so even the most efficient heaters will be a bigger drain on your pocketbook than a traditional furnace.
Propane is cheaper than electric.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, heating a home in the U.S. with a propane heating system costs far less than heating with an electric system.
Generally, oil heaters use about 1500 watts of power, which could be a lot, or less, depending on how much heat you need for your home. Some mono-oil heaters use about 700W of power.
Choice ran a study comparing a fan, oil and panel heater in prices and found that oil heaters are the cheapest to run at $0.51 cost per hour, followed by panel heaters at $0.60 and then fans at $0.63.
Reverse cycle split system air conditioners (A.K.A heat pumps) – the most energy efficient electric heater. 5 and 6 star reverse cycle units can be even cheaper to run than gas heaters, producing just one-fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions that a standard electric heater creates.
For every unit of heat put out by an electric heater, it will cost around three times as much as a unit of heat from one of your radiators."
According to experts, leaving your heating on low all day isn't as cost-effective as you may believe. “The cost of leaving your heating on all day will soon add up,” says Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch.
That cost can increase quickly if you're operating the space heater for several hours a day. For example, running a 1,500-watt heater for 8 hours a day can cost an average of $1.92 each day. That means it will cost many users just under $60 to operate the space heater for 8 hours every day for an entire month.
An electric space heater is small but uses a lot of energy! A 1,500-watt heater running for eight hours each night for a month can add about $43 to your electric bill. Running multiple space heaters can run up your energy costs. Specific, sparing use.
If you use a space heater in your home, please be aware that using a space heater can cause a significant increase in your monthly bill. A 1,000-watt space heater operating 12 hours a day will add about $40 to your monthly bill. If the cost does not deter you, remember how important it is to use space heaters safely.