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Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

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Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#101

Post by skywhopper »

XorNot wrote: post #93
dredmorbius wrote: post #46

Spot-heating, especially within a leaky building envelope utilizing expensive heat sources (electric resistance) is one option. But it's hardly the only one, or the best. For northern climates, taking a whole-system approach to home/structure design gets you a tremendously greater payoff in terms of energy savings. Among the most powerful demonstrations of this I've seen are Thorsten Chlupp / Reina LLC's experiences…

On hot water bottles: the energy spent boiling that water is likely comparable to the energy an electric blanket on low power would use.

Depends: are you using a gas stove, electric stove, inductive stove, or a microwave to boil the water?

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#102

Post by Scoundreller »

skywhopper wrote: post #101
XorNot wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On hot water bottles: the energy spent boiling that water is likely comparable to the energy an electric blanket on low power would use.

Depends: are you using a gas stove, electric stove, inductive stove, or a microwave to boil the water?

Or a kettle.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#105

Post by lucb1e »

_delirium wrote: post #50
nkozyra wrote: post #45

I live in Florida. This entire discussion is bizarro world for me. It costs nearly $400 a month to keep my house at 74deg in the summer.

I live in Copenhagen, and it's also bizarro world for me. :) But mainly because electricity is very expensive here, whereas district heating (hot water produced by municipal plants, which you can draw through your radiator if you'd like) is quite cheap. It would be hard to beat the costs of district heating using a space-heater approach, even given better spatial concentration of the heat.

Wait a minute you get hot water from the pipe instead of heating it yourself? That's interesting.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#106

Post by jrockway »

staunch wrote: post #96

Kotatsu tables really are great. Some pictures here if you haven't seen them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu Unfortunately even a cheap table in the U.S. is more expensive than it should be. There's an opportunity for someone to create kotatsu tables and things like them for the American market.

I think the problem is Americans don't want to sit on the floor.

Which is strange, because carpet is more comfortable than tatami.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#107

Post by Retric »

arh68 wrote: post #53

Imagine how much more they could save by keeping the heated mattress pad on and never leave the bed! I mostly jest.. The author seems totally unaware of the efficiency gains that a heat pump can provide. A 300W space heater will be easily outmatched by a heat pump that consumes 300W (unless we're dropping way, way below 0C). The efficiency is likely ~3x [1]. I hope the author isn't making this mistake out of disdain…

He is dealing with -30 below winters at which point most heat pumps are almost useless. A ground source heat pump can still be useful but they cost quite a bit more to install so they might not be worth it if your to far north.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#108

Post by sliverstorm »

XorNot wrote: post #93
dredmorbius wrote: post #46

Spot-heating, especially within a leaky building envelope utilizing expensive heat sources (electric resistance) is one option. But it's hardly the only one, or the best. For northern climates, taking a whole-system approach to home/structure design gets you a tremendously greater payoff in terms of energy savings. Among the most powerful demonstrations of this I've seen are Thorsten Chlupp / Reina LLC's experiences…

On hot water bottles: the energy spent boiling that water is likely comparable to the energy an electric blanket on low power would use.

Boiling water produces a lot of waste heat. I'm inclined to believe an electric blanket is pretty good comparatively.

Of course my house is all electric, so there are no electric vs. natural gas conversions to make.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#110

Post by sliverstorm »

XorNot wrote: post #92

Looking at this as conventional power savings is wrong. It's better to look at this as comfort. I just recently bought one of those 20 watt heat mats, for one specific reason: while using a computer it is impossible to keep my feet warm. Socks, boots, anything? Doesn't work. It was a huge problem while I was studying. Since I got one, for 20 W, my feet are warm. In fact, my perception of room temperature as a whole h…

Last time I lived in a freezing cold house I just pointed my computer's exhaust at my feet.
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