When I bought my house in New Jersey in 1996, the price of heating oil was less than $1 per gallon. Now it is $3.30 per gallon. To save money, this is what I do: For downstairs, which is about 1600 sq. ft., I use oil furnace to heat. For upstairs, which has three bedrooms and a bathroom and is a little less than 1600 sq. ft., I use portable electric heaters in each room. Yes, portable heaters. I have hooked up each heater to Lux Win100 programmable thermostat which costs about $35 on Amazon. To be safe, each heater has its own dedicated 20 Amp circuit instead the 15 Amp that most manufacturers recommend. Also, never use an extension cord. Each heater is programmed to go on at about 10:00 p.m. and off at 8:00 a.m. The oil furnace is also programmed to go on at 8:00 a.m. and off at 10:00 p.m. Recently, we’ve had a severe cold spell (temps at night in the single digits to negative single digits) and I used Kill-a-Watt meter, which I bought from Home Depot for $28, to measure the use of electricity in my 400 Sq. ft. master bedroom. The total amount used for about ten hours was approximately 4Kwh. Electricity at about 17 cents per Kwh at this time of the year, it cost me about 70 cents to keep the bedroom at constant 72 degrees the entire night. I use DeLonghi Mica Panel heater in the master bedroom which I bought for about $80 a couple of years ago. If I were to run the oil furnace, I am absolutely positive that it would have cost me a lot more than 70 cents. If you want to buy portable heaters, check in Consumer Reports to see which are economical and safe heaters. So, in the end, I would say that if electricity is used as zonal heat with programmable thermostats, it will definitely save you money.
Home » Electric vs propane heating »