Cheaper Electric Cheaper Electricity Bills

Hi,

We have a large two story house and we usually use a portable electric heater to heat whatever room we are in. We have it running basically 24/7 during the winter.
A family member told us that it is much cheaper to run our heater (which is natural gas powered) throughout the entire home since gas is cheaper. We have the vents closed in rooms that we do not spend much time in.
What is everyone’s experience?

Space heater just do that they only heat a space. Typically they are gas guzzling energy machines. And sure they take the chill off where you are at. But they hit you electric bill pretty hard.
You would be better off even with the rooms your not using is 45 degree the vents and the the rooms that you do use leave the vents open 100% (supply register vents). Also, to help reduce the cost, replace your furnace filter every 30 days. Use a basic pleated filter it does not have to be the most expensive one.

The other thing is if you have never had your furnace serviced since you have been there. I would also suggest having it serviced IE tuned up. That way your furnace is running at peak efficiency to keep the gas bill as low as possible.

I’ve always wanted an electric guitar, thinking that drum kits will be much more expensive. (They look to cost like 1000 per kit) But after doing some research, I realized some are like half the price of electric guitars? Are they really cheaper?

No..drums sets are way more expensive.you can get a starter guitar pack for 100-150 that includes the electric guitar,amp,strap,some picks,the cord,and possibly a tuner.(sorry for the long list).the basic drum set in any store is at least 200 bucks. And thats the bass drum and snare. So unless you get it at the pawn shop or used somewhere else like from your friend,you should consider playing the guitar. I play the guitar and i think its much more creative,and you can get headphones so you dont annoy your parents or get banished to the basement. Whatever you do,just have fun with it.
-Miles

I’ve always wanted an electric guitar, thinking that drum kits will be much more expensive. (They look to cost like 1000 per kit) But after doing some research, I realized some are like half the price of electric guitars? Are they really cheaper?

No..drums sets are way more expensive.you can get a starter guitar pack for 100-150 that includes the electric guitar,amp,strap,some picks,the cord,and possibly a tuner.(sorry for the long list).the basic drum set in any store is at least 200 bucks. And thats the bass drum and snare. So unless you get it at the pawn shop or used somewhere else like from your friend,you should consider playing the guitar. I play the guitar and i think its much more creative,and you can get headphones so you dont annoy your parents or get banished to the basement. Whatever you do,just have fun with it.
-Miles

I’m wanting to spend roughly $300.00. Not much more. I do however, want en electric paintball gun and hopper. I do not want a Spyder.
Thanks for your help!

Dangerous Power E1 – $210 (requires hpa)
Gog Envy – $200 (co2 or hpa)
Gog Extcy – $250 (requires hpa)
Proto Rail – $300 (requires hpa)
Invert Mini – $310-350 (requires hpa)

Those would be better than spyders and are in your price range. I noted their gas source as that could also affect your end cost.

There are many many more options if you shop for used guns, but that’d be a long list.

I found this great apt in ma prob is its heated by electric I wanna know if its cheaper to have gas heat or electric heat or vice versa if u have electric heat how much would u pay to jeat a 2bd 1ba a month. Ty much

Much to consider here. You say its an apt, is it an upper or lower, side by side, tenant house. Upper will steal some heat loss from the lower, however you will lose more through an uninsulated attic space than you’ll get from downstairs. Insulation, is there any, how much, how old is the place, it may be better insulated if it is newer. If it is a tenant house, the whole building will be warmer, so it will cost you less, especially if your not an end unit. You could call the utility company for the average usage of the last tenant, but it would be much more accurate if you could get them (the last occupant) to give you their actual costs of their electric.(the problem with getting the average from the utility is that the last tenant may have gone away in the winter or preferred to dress much warmer to offset their usage). Heating with electric is usually more expensive(but it can be done economically if your work at it), however if the city your in is a municipality they may get/give very good rates for their electric. Best to find all this out for sure yourself before you make up your mind.

I live in an area that has 3 municipalities near by and they pay 3-4 cents per kwh everyone has electric heat- gas is NOT ALWAYS cheaper!!!!Never say never/always there are exceptions.

Last time I checked a good honest comparison, electric vehicles were more expensive to own. That was *before gas prices skyrocketed. The best answer can be a good *recent* link with a ‘cost to own’ comparison. Essentially I want to know if we are getting closer to the break even point with today’s high gas prices.

In the analysis you must take into account the following to be honest:
1. Your grid power cost. This will vary significantly with location.
2. The time value of the original investment (Interest lost on the money paid out)
3. Depreciation / appreciation of the vehicle over time.
4. Maintenance costs, including an estimate of battery replacement at manufactures life projection.

If you are required to have a second car for long trips, you should also add that cost into your analysis.

Every time I have done this analysis, I just cannot justify it. even when gas was at $4.

I have a small townhouse in Charleston SC. It uses heat strips for heat and is costly to operate. Is there a plug in electric heater that is cheaper to use than the heat strips? Cheers.

however, I think you may be referring to some other sort of electric heater.

electric heaters are considered to be 100% efficient: virtually every watt consumed directly contributes to heating the space. Despite what Paul Harvey says, no portable heater exists that is magically more efficient than anything else. where you may see some benefits in economy, would be to maintain a lower overall temperature, and use a small forced air heater to heat your immediate area. the point to keep in mind, though, is that the structure of the home contributes to it feeling warm or cold: if your walls and floor are left cold all of the time, and the heat only boosted when you’re in the room, then the room will tend to feel cold all the time. the natural tendency is to try to boost the heat more, to compensate for the room feeling cold. if the walls and floor are kept a little warmer, then the room feels warmer with less heat.

a little object lesson in that factor: my church used to use a timer to turn the heating system completely off when the building was vacant. we replaced the timer with a programmable setback thermostat, and maintained the building at 60 degrees when vacant, and people stopped complaining about being cold, and the gas bill went down.

good luck to you.

I’ve been on the electric company’s average payment plan for years and I am thinking of changing to reading my own meter, can someone please tell me which would end up being cheaper?

it ends up being the same.
on the average plan you pay a projected average payment. once or twice a year someone will read your meter and sure up your account….either giving you a refund or sending you a bill.

if you read your own meter, you will pay for exactly how much power you use each month. someone from the company will still come read the meter to ensure you are truthful with your reports.

or you can have them do their normal process. the will estimate your bills for a few months, and then have someone read it to get you back on track.

no matter which method you choose, you will pay the same over the long term.

prepaid electirc i dont know how to explain it !!!

are we supposed to guess what prepaid electric thing your talking about?

I have a 1000 sq ft house and my gas bill gets up to $400 per month in the winter. Do you know if it would be less expensive to run electric heaters in every room or us the gas furnace??

Depends on the price of gas and electricity in your area. In times past gas has been cheaper. Now it depends on the efficiency of your furnace…..how old it is, etc. A better idea for this year and the next few is to increase the insulation in your attic, add to walls if possible, check all the windows and door and reweather seal as necessary…….do more to prevent heat loss.

You may find if you can limit the rooms used in winter, add a supplemental electric heater for the room and only use as necessary, you can cut the heating bill.