[OKC] From Mother Jones: Do Space Heaters Save Money and Energy?

[Miles, Karen]

Do Space Heaters Save Money and Energy?

Or is it more efficient to just bump up the thermostat?
By Kiera Butler <http://motherjones.com/authors/kiera-butler>  | Mon
Jan. 10, 2011 2:30 AM PST
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Brrr! It's been unusually cold in the Bay Area: I had to scrape actual
ice off my car last week. (Isn't that why I left the East Coast in the
first place?) We've been cranking the space heaters all night at my
house, lest we turn into icicles in our sleep. Since our central heat
isn't very efficient (it is itself kind of a giant space heater), I've
assumed that the room-by-room approach is best. But our power bill
soared last month, so I decided to do a little more research.
The short answer is that it depends on how much of your house you're
heating. In general, if you only need one or two rooms to be warm, space
heaters will use less energy than central heat. (Unless your central
heating happens to be wildly efficient: Geothermal users, I'm looking at
you). "But in terms of energy per heat output, small space heaters will
rarely ever be as efficient as a central heating system," says Tom
Simchak, a senior policy-research associate at the Alliance to Save
Energy <http://ase.org/>  [1]. "There would be few situations where
putting space heaters in every room and turning them all on would be
more efficient than a properly-operating and relatively modern central
system."
If you do opt for a space heater, make sure to get the right kind. 
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Article continues at URL: 
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/01/will-space-heater-save-you-mo
ney-and-energy
 
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