I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

Here's an idea-
1. Do what you're doing for a month. Add up gas/electric/oil bills
2. Set t-stat at 68 for 1 month. Add up utility costs. Compare. Do
what's cheaper.

Rich wrote:
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

wrote:

Here's an idea-
1. Do what you're doing for a month. Add up gas/electric/oil bills
2. Set t-stat at 68 for 1 month. Add up utility costs. Compare. Do
what's cheaper.

Better find out how many degree days there were in each of those two
months and use them to adjust your comparisons. without doing that your
results won't be worth chit.

Jeff



Rich wrote:

I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

"Rich" wrote in message
. ..
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

It may be costing you. Electric in our area is at least four times the cost
of heating with oil or gas. YMMV so check out the different rates. I tried
doing something similar and all I did was increase my electric bill. Check
the comparative costs here
http://www.warmair.net/html/fuel_cost_comparisons.htm

Simple way to calculate is to assume heat loss is proportional to
temperature difference. Say an outside temperature of 20, so difference is
40 @ 60 and 48 @ 68 which gives about a 20% savings less the cost of
electricity to heat the room you are in.

This will at least give you a ball park estimate. Now look at your electric
bill and they usually tell you the cost per kilowatt hour. Figure how many
kilowatts your heater uses and how many hours it is on to get cost of
running it.

"Rich" wrote in message
. ..
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

"Rich" writes:

I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

There are too many variables to answer this unfortunately. Cost of
running the space heater, cost of fuel, size of the rest of the house,
efficiency of the furnace, how lossy your home is in terms of heat,
etc. The larger, the lossier, the rest of teh house and the less
efficient your furnace, the more money your current tactic will save
you.

My gut says you're probably saving money leaving the rest of the space
drop down in temp during the day and using the electric heater in the
only occupied space. Your furnace will have a fairly long continuous
run when you bring it back up to temp at the end of the day, but you
should still end up ahead by not having to heat the rest of the joint
to a balmy room temp for all those hours each day.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:17:51 -0600, "Rich"
wrote:

I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich




Electric heat is expensive. A programmable thermostat will pay for
itself in a short time. More insulation and caulking helps too.

Rich wrote:
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat
the office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but
I'm wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting
it to 68 and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

It is very difficult to tell. What kind of does your home use? Gas,
oil, resistance electric, heat pump coal?? Is that space heater electric?

Chances are the space heater is far less efficient than the whole house
system and much of the heat that the space heater is making is going into
the rest of the house. Frankly I would be surprised if you are not paying
more your way.

I would suggest maybe setting the rest of your home to say 66 - 68º and
using the space heater to just add a little additional heat if needed.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Joseph Meehan wrote:
Rich wrote:
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat
the office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but
I'm wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting
it to 68 and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

It is very difficult to tell. What kind of does your home use? Gas,
oil, resistance electric, heat pump coal?? Is that space heater
electric?
Chances are the space heater is far less efficient than the whole
house system and much of the heat that the space heater is making is
going into the rest of the house. Frankly I would be surprised if
you are not paying more your way.

I would suggest maybe setting the rest of your home to say 66 -
68º and using the space heater to just add a little additional heat
if needed.

Thanks to everyone that replied. My house is heated with gas and the space
heater is electric and cost twelve cents/hour to run and it only runs for
10-15 minutes to get the 120 square foot office up to temp, and runs
sparingly after that to keep it up to temp. My office has french doors so
the heat is staying in this room until I open the door when I go to bed or
watch a little TV. I guess the one poster was right that I have to look at
the temp difference and see that it is 20% potential savings from 68-60 with
the same temp. differential so I guess the way I'm doing it is correct for
my situation.

Thanks, Rich

Rich wrote:
Joseph Meehan wrote:
Rich wrote:
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat
the office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but
I'm wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting
it to 68 and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich

It is very difficult to tell. What kind of does your home use? Gas,
oil, resistance electric, heat pump coal?? Is that space heater
electric?
Chances are the space heater is far less efficient than the whole
house system and much of the heat that the space heater is making is
going into the rest of the house. Frankly I would be surprised if
you are not paying more your way.

I would suggest maybe setting the rest of your home to say 66 -
68º and using the space heater to just add a little additional heat
if needed.

Thanks to everyone that replied. My house is heated with gas and the space
heater is electric and cost twelve cents/hour to run and it only runs for
10-15 minutes to get the 120 square foot office up to temp, and runs
sparingly after that to keep it up to temp. My office has french doors so
the heat is staying in this room until I open the door when I go to bed or
watch a little TV. I guess the one poster was right that I have to look at
the temp difference and see that it is 20% potential savings from 68-60 with
the same temp. differential so I guess the way I'm doing it is correct for
my situation.

Thanks, Rich


I agree. Sounds like you are saving energy cost.

Rich first asked:
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

suggested:
1. Do what you're doing for a month. Add up gas/electric/oil bills
2. Set t-stat at 68 for 1 month. Add up utility costs. Compare. Do
what's cheaper.

Jeff Wisnia opined:
Better find out how many degree days there were in each of those two
months and use them to adjust your comparisons. without doing that your
results won't be worth chit.

If you do bigjim's suggestion, check your utility bill - many companies
provide some sort of "per day" cost breakdown and average temperature
over the billing period and the period before. It won't give you an
exact comparison, but might be close enough.

Rich get yourself a warm, comfortable fleece jacket that zips up to the
neck, some fleece pants and some hunting socks. You can turn your
thermostat down to sixty and leave the space heater in the closet.


Rich wrote:
I set my thermostat to 60 degrees and then use a space heater to heat the
office as that is the room I'm in mostly, and that works fine but I'm
wondering how much money it really saves instead of just setting it to 68
and leaving it there? I live near Chicago if that helps.

Thanks, Rich