I know some of you use electric heaters to keep just one or two rooms warm while keeping the thermostat low for the rest of the house, so I was interested to read Gary Foreman's discussion of it in this week's Dollar Stretcher ( Gas vs Electric Heat )  I had honestly had my doubts as to the real benefit, since you'd be adding electric costs while cutting gas costs, but the numbers Gary provided convinced me. I don't pay as high a rate for electricity and I pay a higher rate for gas, but it works out. Have you done the numbers? What convinced you to use electric space heaters this way?

I've never crunched the numbers (not a math fan) but I do use the portable space heater on days that I just feel a bit chillier, and only in the room I am in at the time. I keep my thermostat at 65 at all times and bundle up. I also run a warm mist humidifier in the living room 24/7 (low mist) and one in the bedroom just at night. I added a wool blanket to my feet area on top of my down comfy (with flannel duvet) since they tend to be the chilliest.

I won't run my heater more than a couple hours in a day and it does the trick for me. We'll see what this next bill brings (last month was only $48).  

Our propane bill can reach over $100 a month for heat, water heater and stove. I decided to try the electric heaters while keeping the gas heater set on 60-65. My electric bill has not really risen but my propane cost is about $40 less.

Luvd_Lioness:

I keep my thermostat at 65 at all times and bundle up.

 The older I get, the less tolerant I am of cold, so I can't keep my thermostat that low. I spend most of my day in my home office, though and can use a space heater there.

Brandy:

My electric bill has not really risen but my propane cost is about $40 less.

That's enough to convince me! :)
 

If you spend most of the day in your home office I would definately use a space heater in your home office. I use a heavy curtain to seperate the top floor from the bottom floor of our house . My pellet stove heats the bottom floor and I do have a forced air gas heater that will heat the whole house but the thermostat is in the same room as the pellet stove. So the upstairs is cold. I put a space heater in the upstairs now and we turn the auger on low on the pellet stove at night. Between the pellet stove and space heater we save a TON of money and the heat in our house is about 70 degrees.

Check out Consumer Reports online site to see which ones they recomend. I like the one we have that looks like a woodstove for ambiance, and light but I think the one that heats the best for the least ammount of electricity is the convection ones that look like baseboard heaters.

Pat, I think you and I are from the 'old school' thinking on space heaters.  I remember mom and dad using them in unheated rooms over the years in some of the barn-like house we lived in growing up and they drove the bill up markedly, mom said. 

Dh and I bought one of those space heaters from Aldi a year or so ago, the one that looks like a small, iron stove (several ladies on another forum had bought them at the same time) and they're much more efficient than the old ones.  We run ours all the while we're in the living room in the evenings, plus if the girls are home during the day, they'll turn it on.  The rest of the house stays pretty cool, since the thermostat is near the space heater, but we're toasty.  I haven't noticed any rise in our bill; in fact, our bill has gone down, due to several factors, but one reason I'm convinced of is the space heater. 

I'm not a mathematician either, but I think it's helped rather than harmed our power bills...Liz 

TizzyLizzy:

Dh and I bought one of those space heaters from Aldi a year or so ago, the one that looks like a small, iron stove

Aren't those kind of expensive? The ones I have now cost around $25, but that was a few years ago. They still work fine. Two are "barn heaters" and one is more traditional styling.  

I bought mine a couple of weeks ago at Home Depot for 99.99 - Check out the Home Depot web site if you don't have a Home Depot in your area, I saw them on the web site for 129.00 delivered. If you check out the shopping part of the Dollar Stretcher forum you will find a post I made about the heater and a linkee that goes right to the HD website.

Miserly:

I bought mine a couple of weeks ago at Home Depot for 99.99 - Check out the Home Depot web site if you don't have a Home Depot in your area, I saw them on the web site for 129.00 delivered

Thanks... I did check it out when I read your other post. $129 is kind of pricey, especially when I already have three here.

TizzyLizzy:

Dh and I bought one of those space heaters from Aldi a year or so ago, the one that looks like a small, iron stove (several ladies on another forum had bought them at the same time) and they're much more efficient than the old ones. 

How much more efficient? How many kilowatts do they use?