would an electric fireplace be cheaper to run the electric heat?

jason s

i am trying not to have a 200.00 electric bill again during the winter months. thought about investing in a electric fireplace. i live in a 2 bedroom 2 bath 1 story apartment with 2 heating units.i heating unit heats the master bedroom. the other one heats the rest of the apartment.i do not have a themostat. my control settings are normal, cool, and hot. like what you might find in a hotel room. i have done everything i can do to lower my electric bill. my apartment is a electric. so i was thinking about buying the fireplace and put in the master bedroom and not run the heating unit in the master bedroom.will this same me money on my electric bill? my only concern is the fireplace my trip the fusebox all the time.

Answer
Where do you live?

Can you get away with not running the heat for most of the day/night and just adding more blankets & bundling up?

We have just space heaters (don't use the apartment-furnished heating units) for when it gets REALLY chilly...but then again really chilly for us is when it's in the 40's outside! Cold inside is when it's about 60 or so (and that warrants slipper-socks & sweaters).

You will need to make some decisions on how you want to live. You may just need to save money during the summer to compensate the bill during the winter.

Good luck.

Gas fireplace or space heater?

Tal R

Which is more efficient for heating up a large room, a gas fireplace or an electric space heater?

Thank you.

Answer
The gas fireplace. Hands down.

Look at your bills electric heaters are rated in watts used per hour or KWH (thousands of watts per hour). So an heater that is rated at 1,500 watts uses 1.5 Kilowatts per hour or 1.5 KWH.
The electric company bases their charges on KWH Electric space heater (high) 1500 watts.... Electric space heater (low) 750 watts = 1.5 or 0.75 KwH x (look on your bill prices vary) .15 (from the electric company. So 1.5 x .15 = .22 1/2 cents per hour to operate. Which is $ 5.40 a day for 24 hours Or ~ $ 162.00 per month

For the gas it goes by Therms or BtU. One therm equals 100,000 Btu or about 96.7 cubic feet of natural gas typically it costs $ 0.93 cent per therm (again check your bill).

Now here is the tricky part. You gas fireplace has a BTU rating for the MAX setting. You can however dial it down. A high-efficiency fireplace burns much less gas in order to supply the same amount of heat compared with a low-efficiency fireplace. For example, a 20 000 Btu/h fireplace operating at 70 percent efficiency will provide the same amount of heat as a 40 000 Btu/h unit operating at 35 percent efficiency â and it will use only half the fuel in doing so! A fireplace that allows you to âdial downâ the input considerably through modulation or turndown, or that has some means of moving heat out of the room to other parts of the house, will allow for greater control of heat output to prevent overheating.
Fireplaces also give heat with not only radiation but convection.

So let's say you are running the gas HE fireplace at 20000 Btu now 1 therm is $0.93 which is 100000 BTU So 1/5th of 93 is $ 0.18 per hour $4.32 a 24 hour day or $ 129.00 per month


Anyway check your bill and do the math your self!

Formula for electric is

Item KWH x Charge from the electric company = cost to run

For Gas

Item BTU x Charge per therm (100000 btu= 1 therm) Divide the item BTU into the Therm 20,000 BTU into 100000 therm is 20% x charge = cost to run

Take into account which will do a better job of heating the space.

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