How to Save Money on Heating

As heating bills always see to climb, consumers are looking for less expensive ways to heat their homes. In some cases, the use of portable space heaters may reduce the total fuel bill without significantly reducing the comfort level in the house. The best space heaters are also the most efficient space heaters. But here we look at why consumers feel the need to heat their homes as the temperatures drop.

In general, room heaters will not save money if they are used to heat the whole house. The central heating system can provide the same amount of heat for the same or less cost. However, the total heat needed may be reduced by keeping a major part of the house at a lower temperature and using room heaters to warm only the areas in use at any one time. This is called zoning.

If at least two-thirds of the house can be kept at 50-55°F. and the rest heated to comfort level with room heaters, some savings may be possible.

Comfort

Comfort is not the same to all people. Thermal comfort is when the amount of heat produced by the body is the same as the heat easily lost to its surroundings. This heat is lost in four ways.

Radiation

A major heat loss from the body is by radiation. Any surface will radiate heat to any colder surface nearby. This applies to our bodies also-our skin surface will radiate heat to a cold wall or window, or even to the sky.

Convection

Heat is also lost by convection-that is, air moving across the skin surface. This is the source of the “wind chill” factor that makes cold weather seem even colder than it really is.

Evaporation

Our bodies are also cooled by evaporation from the skin surfaces and from the lungs. It takes heat to evaporate moisture, and that heat remains in the water vapor as it leaves our body.

Conduction

The fourth method of bodily heat loss is by conduction, commonly through direct contact with cool floors and furniture. Fortunately, most surfaces that our bodies touch, such as carpeting, are relatively poor conductors of heat. However, a football fan on an aluminum stadium seat in cold weather will certainly feel the effects of heat loss by conduction.

Considering these ways to lose heat, it is easy to see that individual comfort is affected by the ease with which we are able to maintain a satisfactory body temperature. The temperature of surrounding walls and windows can cause heat loss by radiation. Air temperature will control heat loss by convection. Warm air moving past will warm us, and cool air will cause a chilly feeling.

The amount of heat produced by our bodies, called metabolism, varies considerably. When we are active or working, the body produces much more heat than when we are at rest. Age and state of health also change our heat production. Researchers know much about the “average” individual, usually a college or medical student, but very little about infants, the elderly, and the ill.

Conditions comfortable to active young persons are almost certain to be too cool for their grandparents.

This understanding of conditions which produce comfort is important in understanding the advantages, disadvantages, and use of room heaters to produce comfortable conditions.

Radiant Heating

While nearly all room heaters use a combination of radiant and convection heating, some are designed to produce primarily radiant heat. A large surface, such as a radiant panel, may be heated to a moderate temperature (about ll0°F.). In this case, the radiation component is relatively small and less likely to be felt on the face and head of the occupant.

If a small surface, such as a heating element, can be raised to a very high temperature (1100°F.), the radiation component is higher and the occupant will feel concentrated heat focused on his body.

A radiant heater will transfer heat to our bodies with or without air circulation, just as the heat of the sun reaches the earth through the vacuum of outer space. However, it will heat only surfaces which “face” it.

This is the effect of facing a roaring fire in a cold room-one side fries while the other freezes. Any surface on the body or in the room that is heated by a radiant heater will become warm and heat the air near it, causing some convection, but this is not the primary means of heating.

Radiant heat can be useful because it can be directed toward a small area. If the work area in a large room is small, a radiant “spot” heater, backed by a reflector, can heat the person working there ·without raising the air temperature, thereby conserving energy.

The wing chair was developed as a means of being comfortable in a cold, drafty house. It provided insulation and draft protection on three sides of a person seated facing the fire or heat source.

Convection Heating

Convection heaters primarily heat the air in the room. A typical convection heater is the electric baseboard heater, which warms the air passing over a finned heating element. A heater with an air-circulating fan is also a type of convection heater.

When the air temperature in the room increases, surfaces within the room are eventually warmed. This reduces the amount of heat lost from the body by convection. Heat supplied to the body by warm air can offset most of the heat lost by radiation to cold surfaces. However, because the convection heater warms the air, as well as the body and other objects in the room, more total heat will be used. This makes them less energy efficient form space heaters.

Use of Room Heaters

In the development of a comfortable home environment, the American people have demanded that comfort conditions be maintained in every room. This has led to centrally controlled heating systems.

The centr.al heating system is the main user of fuel in the house. For most of the country, the total heat used will decrease by 2-3% for each degree the thermostat setting is lowered. The major savings comes from lowering the thermostat setting for the whole house and then using room heaters to warm the occupied rooms.

A room heater in a kitchen or family room, and the bathroom, can make those rooms quite comfortable, while the remainder of the house is at 50-55°F. In a sense, energy savings are obtained by reducing the comfort standards to those of an earlier era. However, the discomforts of an earlier era will be less noticeable because of the improved thermal construction of today’ s housing.

A house temperature lower than 50-55°F. may cause problems with frozen pipes and damage wall finishes or foundations unless special precautions are taken. Accurately maintaining a background temperature of 50-55°F. may be difficult. If the thermostat is located in the same room as the room heater, the thermostat will “think” the rest of the house is warm. The thermostat will not turn on the furnace or boiler until the temperature in that room drops. Unless the thermostat is located in the 50-55° zone, the heat in this portion of the house may drop below an acceptable level.

If the house thermostat is set down 15° for the entire winter, the central heating system might use 30-45% less fuel for the year. Since additional, often more expensive, fuel is used in the room heaters, overall savings on the order of 20-30% is about the most that can be expected. When using unvented fuel-burning heaters, ventilation is necessary, and the total heating bill may stay about the same, or even increase.

The post How to Save Money on Heating appeared first on Space Heater Pro.