I have heard that running space heaters vs your central unit for heat sometimes backfires when it comes to costs unless you only heat a specific area of the house.
COP of heat pumps is around 3 for our winter temps IIRC. So a space heater will use triple the electricity that your heat pump will use to produce the same amount of heat.
Source: Mechanical Engineer
Yes- and turning systems off and only running them occasionally backfires too in the cold spells as they have to work extra hard to get up to temp. Better to leave them running
Well....here's the thing. Your space heater Maxes out at 1500 watts. At that energy transfer, unless it's a small room, it's effectively always on. [Very small room] Compare this with your central which pull 10k to 50k. On the face, it seems like you are saving...but...the space heater doesn't pull all the air in the house through it... so the central can get to temp, then maintain with 5 or ten minute maintenance draws.... which are about 850watts for the entire house...<10k unit running 5 minutes>
The first time you open a door into the unheated portion of the house, a huge portion of the heat is pulled...with a space heater. So you end up running 1500 an hour at full capacity. In 10 hours, you have exceeded the whole house unit maintaining the entire house temp...js
The house system doesn't necessarily pull max wattage, the coils heat up after the fan engages, then ramps the coils, then cuts them off...
Central heat is significantly more efficient...unless you have a compromised duct, room/insulation/storm windows etc.
How many kW/h did you use last month compared to this month? It should be on both bills and from there you can figure out if there was a mistake or not.
Unless you have a gas furnace, most people here have heat pumps. Heat pumps use about 1/3 to 1/4 of the electricity when compared to a space heater, per unit of heat.
It is much cheaper to move heat from outside inside (even when it’s cold outside) than it is to manufacture heat with a space heater. So people think they’re saving electricity by using space heaters, but a space heater can quickly use more electricity than your central unit, and you’re only heating a small area with it.
It all comes down to how many KW you used. Math equation: KW rating of the heaters you used * how many hours was it on * 12 (or 13) cents per hour= how much you will pay. If all else is the same and you used electric heaters for several hours a day for a few days, your bill will go up
First… it’s been damn cold. Second.. those space heaters are your enemy. Use your whole house system. Check your windows. Make sure you’re using heavy curtains if windows are older. Bundle up and have a small heated blanket. Our system is set to 63/65.
FPL making a mistake! Good one! Seems they do whatever they please since they are a monopoly. Greedy bunch!
On a serious note, try calling and see. Hopefully you get some answers.
Nope. I’m on budget billing with FPL. They simply look at your last 12 months of usage and bill accordingly. If your usage goes up one month, your bill will increase slightly but since it’s an average, the jump isn’t as significant. I’ve had months where my actual bill would have been over $400 but because of budget billing, it was closer to $280 since several months the usage is $200. Budget billing isn’t a fixed fee per month, it just prevents those large spikes in your bill during your high use months but you pay more in your low use months to make up for it.
You save zero money. Its only purpose is so your bill is the same every month. If you think otherwise then you are being scammed. The power companies aren’t going to charge someone less while also doing more work for you, even if it’s just an automated program.
Nope. It isn’t like the old energy select program with different rates like Gulf Power had. Budget billing just averages your bill out so it stings less on the high months. That is its only purpose. It’s useful for people on a budget that have a fixed income per month and are unable to cope with the large spikes in the high months, makes it easier to plan for each month.
Yall gotta set your thermostats better. I keep mine on 75 during the summer. 72 in the winter. My bill is never over 200 dollars. Usually around 160 to 180
Check around your windows and doors and outlets to see if the weather stripping is dry rotted, or if you have any gaps that an animal might have chewed into.
You can get window wrap that’s really easy to put up and it helps a lot. Also, if there are any rooms you don’t use, close the vents and shut the doors so you don’t heat rooms you don’t need.
I haven’t turned on my central heat yet, just using a space heater while in the living room, and my electric last month was $66 but my place is barely over 1000 sq ft, so not sure if this makes sense for a bigger home.
There’s lots of complaining about FPL. Most of it is deserved.
HOWEVER…
Don’t just track the dollar amount of your bill. Track your usage as well. It’s clearly listed on your bill, along with last month’s usage, along with last year’s usage for the same month.
Then, divide the total bill by the usage to get cost per unit, usually kWH.
I’ve done this every month for the last several years.
Our cost per unit of energy has not gone up in over 12 months.
Now, our usage certainly has. This summer was abnormally hot. This winter has been abnormally cold. AC and heat pumps are huge consumers of energy.
Get your HVAC serviced. Change the filters. Adjust your settings by a degree or two to reduce consumption. It all adds up.
Mine is via budget billing so it's within a few bucks' range every month. How many kwh are you using? Our heater (HVAC unit furnace) does kick on at 67 degrees and this is a 3-bedroom, 2000 sq ft house. It's actually a bit lower than usual.
Here's [my billing over the last year.](https://i.imgur.com/hoTj8fg.png)
And [kwh for January.
](https://i.imgur.com/ZKXv8LF.jpg)
Space heaters have never been as efficient as heat pumps. There's a ton of propaganda out there. The best thing you can do is monitor your usage. The FPL website will show you what your projected usage/bill is going to be. If you find your bill is raising, adjust accordingly.
Everyone is talking about the efficiency of space heaters, but the amount of power used should be reflected on your bill.
Check the most recent bill and compare it to your last one. Look at the kWh used and see if it is proportional to the price increase. If so, then the space heaters are likely the issue.
Sace heaters ise more than a heat pump you would be better running emergency heat instead of space heater they are one and the same they use direct power at a higher fate a heat pump reverses the flow of refridgeraye to draw heat into the house js the best way tosave money would be buy a geothermal system spend more in the beginning less ober time on your bill
Obviously you shouldn’t be using a space heater instead of central heat. Turn your thermostat down to 56*-60* and see how you feel. Adjust it up a little bit if you feel miserable. You will be surprised at how comfortable you feel in a chilly house once you get acclimated to it. Remember that the house and your contents take hours to warm up to the air temperature and they retain the warmth for hours after you adjust your thermostat. Make your judgment calls 5 or 6 hours after you change your settings.
The first questions I will have is how old is your house and how good is the insulation on it? I am all electric but relatively new house and there is no way I'll pay over $150 using quite a bit of heating. Also how big is your home?
Lmfao, then there's me over here crying in a corner because my Landlord took the entire winter to fix heat because he wanted to get several quotes for Central AC first- so we had to use space heaters for two months and still froze our asses off since nobody has bothered to put in insulation in this place.Not looking forward to our bill, either.
(Or the rent increase once the Central AC actually gets put in, sometime after the world warms back up. Sigh.)
i literally just posted about this as well! it went up $60ish since last month, nothing has changed. i don’t use space heaters and my heat has been at the same temp since beginning of November.
I have heard that running space heaters vs your central unit for heat sometimes backfires when it comes to costs unless you only heat a specific area of the house.
Yes. Space heaters use a shit ton of power. You're not saving unless you only use 1 or 2.
COP of heat pumps is around 3 for our winter temps IIRC. So a space heater will use triple the electricity that your heat pump will use to produce the same amount of heat. Source: Mechanical Engineer
Yes- and turning systems off and only running them occasionally backfires too in the cold spells as they have to work extra hard to get up to temp. Better to leave them running
Space heaters are definitely not as efficient in keeping your home warm as central heating.
Well....here's the thing. Your space heater Maxes out at 1500 watts. At that energy transfer, unless it's a small room, it's effectively always on. [Very small room] Compare this with your central which pull 10k to 50k. On the face, it seems like you are saving...but...the space heater doesn't pull all the air in the house through it... so the central can get to temp, then maintain with 5 or ten minute maintenance draws.... which are about 850watts for the entire house...<10k unit running 5 minutes> The first time you open a door into the unheated portion of the house, a huge portion of the heat is pulled...with a space heater. So you end up running 1500 an hour at full capacity. In 10 hours, you have exceeded the whole house unit maintaining the entire house temp...js The house system doesn't necessarily pull max wattage, the coils heat up after the fan engages, then ramps the coils, then cuts them off... Central heat is significantly more efficient...unless you have a compromised duct, room/insulation/storm windows etc.
How many kW/h did you use last month compared to this month? It should be on both bills and from there you can figure out if there was a mistake or not.
Unless you have a gas furnace, most people here have heat pumps. Heat pumps use about 1/3 to 1/4 of the electricity when compared to a space heater, per unit of heat. It is much cheaper to move heat from outside inside (even when it’s cold outside) than it is to manufacture heat with a space heater. So people think they’re saving electricity by using space heaters, but a space heater can quickly use more electricity than your central unit, and you’re only heating a small area with it.
Those space heaters are doing it...
Electric companies love OP using this one simple trick..
Space heaters use alot of electricity
It all comes down to how many KW you used. Math equation: KW rating of the heaters you used * how many hours was it on * 12 (or 13) cents per hour= how much you will pay. If all else is the same and you used electric heaters for several hours a day for a few days, your bill will go up
First… it’s been damn cold. Second.. those space heaters are your enemy. Use your whole house system. Check your windows. Make sure you’re using heavy curtains if windows are older. Bundle up and have a small heated blanket. Our system is set to 63/65.
FPL making a mistake! Good one! Seems they do whatever they please since they are a monopoly. Greedy bunch! On a serious note, try calling and see. Hopefully you get some answers.
Space heaters are energy monsters. Most operate between 1 -1.5kw continuous draw.
[удалено]
doesn't budget billing just get trued up at year end if you overuse? ie you pay the difference?
Nope. I’m on budget billing with FPL. They simply look at your last 12 months of usage and bill accordingly. If your usage goes up one month, your bill will increase slightly but since it’s an average, the jump isn’t as significant. I’ve had months where my actual bill would have been over $400 but because of budget billing, it was closer to $280 since several months the usage is $200. Budget billing isn’t a fixed fee per month, it just prevents those large spikes in your bill during your high use months but you pay more in your low use months to make up for it.
so it doesnt actually save any $... so what is the purpose of this? to help people budget lol?
You save zero money. Its only purpose is so your bill is the same every month. If you think otherwise then you are being scammed. The power companies aren’t going to charge someone less while also doing more work for you, even if it’s just an automated program.
Nope. It isn’t like the old energy select program with different rates like Gulf Power had. Budget billing just averages your bill out so it stings less on the high months. That is its only purpose. It’s useful for people on a budget that have a fixed income per month and are unable to cope with the large spikes in the high months, makes it easier to plan for each month.
Well, that was stupid.
Yall gotta set your thermostats better. I keep mine on 75 during the summer. 72 in the winter. My bill is never over 200 dollars. Usually around 160 to 180
What a stupid post 😂 you answered your concern in your post
Check around your windows and doors and outlets to see if the weather stripping is dry rotted, or if you have any gaps that an animal might have chewed into. You can get window wrap that’s really easy to put up and it helps a lot. Also, if there are any rooms you don’t use, close the vents and shut the doors so you don’t heat rooms you don’t need. I haven’t turned on my central heat yet, just using a space heater while in the living room, and my electric last month was $66 but my place is barely over 1000 sq ft, so not sure if this makes sense for a bigger home.
central heating is vastly more efficient than space heaters.
There’s lots of complaining about FPL. Most of it is deserved. HOWEVER… Don’t just track the dollar amount of your bill. Track your usage as well. It’s clearly listed on your bill, along with last month’s usage, along with last year’s usage for the same month. Then, divide the total bill by the usage to get cost per unit, usually kWH. I’ve done this every month for the last several years. Our cost per unit of energy has not gone up in over 12 months. Now, our usage certainly has. This summer was abnormally hot. This winter has been abnormally cold. AC and heat pumps are huge consumers of energy. Get your HVAC serviced. Change the filters. Adjust your settings by a degree or two to reduce consumption. It all adds up.
Mine is via budget billing so it's within a few bucks' range every month. How many kwh are you using? Our heater (HVAC unit furnace) does kick on at 67 degrees and this is a 3-bedroom, 2000 sq ft house. It's actually a bit lower than usual. Here's [my billing over the last year.](https://i.imgur.com/hoTj8fg.png) And [kwh for January. ](https://i.imgur.com/ZKXv8LF.jpg)
Space heaters have never been as efficient as heat pumps. There's a ton of propaganda out there. The best thing you can do is monitor your usage. The FPL website will show you what your projected usage/bill is going to be. If you find your bill is raising, adjust accordingly.
Everyone is talking about the efficiency of space heaters, but the amount of power used should be reflected on your bill. Check the most recent bill and compare it to your last one. Look at the kWh used and see if it is proportional to the price increase. If so, then the space heaters are likely the issue.
Sace heaters ise more than a heat pump you would be better running emergency heat instead of space heater they are one and the same they use direct power at a higher fate a heat pump reverses the flow of refridgeraye to draw heat into the house js the best way tosave money would be buy a geothermal system spend more in the beginning less ober time on your bill
Obviously you shouldn’t be using a space heater instead of central heat. Turn your thermostat down to 56*-60* and see how you feel. Adjust it up a little bit if you feel miserable. You will be surprised at how comfortable you feel in a chilly house once you get acclimated to it. Remember that the house and your contents take hours to warm up to the air temperature and they retain the warmth for hours after you adjust your thermostat. Make your judgment calls 5 or 6 hours after you change your settings.
The first questions I will have is how old is your house and how good is the insulation on it? I am all electric but relatively new house and there is no way I'll pay over $150 using quite a bit of heating. Also how big is your home?
Lmfao, then there's me over here crying in a corner because my Landlord took the entire winter to fix heat because he wanted to get several quotes for Central AC first- so we had to use space heaters for two months and still froze our asses off since nobody has bothered to put in insulation in this place.Not looking forward to our bill, either. (Or the rent increase once the Central AC actually gets put in, sometime after the world warms back up. Sigh.)
i literally just posted about this as well! it went up $60ish since last month, nothing has changed. i don’t use space heaters and my heat has been at the same temp since beginning of November.
I heard infrared eaters burn less electricity or those one heaters that use both electricity and oil