heating options for the rest of the winter

[SquamishSerpents]

I have nowhere to build a rack right now because it's winter and where I live, winter means raining forever. We live in an apartment so my boyfriends table saw & whatnot are stored elsewhere that doesn't have a covered area. For now my snakes are just in their bins stacked up with lids on (They're all corns). So obviously heating them via my usual flexwatt isn't really an option.

And forgive me, this is probably a really dumb question.

But is it more efficient cost-wise to operate a 750W baseboard heater, or a 1500W oil-filled heater?

The room is only about 150 square feet MAX, but it contains 10 bins w/ corns, my rat breeding colonies, and my superworms.

I've been using the baseboard heating but looked at my energy consumption and HOLY BATMAN it's shot up.

So is it a better option to use the oil-filled heater? Or will it be more expensive? (Because it has more watts?) It's only a temporary solution until I get some time and a nice day (and a friend with a truck) to cut up some pieces for a new rack.

Like I said, probably a really dumb question, but I don't know a single thing about electricity.

[youbeyouibei]

It largely boils down to efficiency: the 1500 watt heater would heat the area more rapidly, in theory, by putting out more power in the form of heat. However, the baseboard heaters might cover the area of the room better and by doing so heat it up more efficiently than what the 1500 watt heater could just sitting in the middle of the room. Are you trying to heat the entire room or just a small area of it? If you could condense your animals into one area and use the heater to localize the heat placement to that area, it might be more efficient (and less power costs) to do that rather than trying to heat the entire room.

How well is the apartment insulated? If it was anything like the ones I've lived in, I'm guessing not too well. I'd say do what you can as far as sealing up the windows with a thermal barrier (the plastic kits they sell work just fine for that) and do what you can to insulate the room so you're not losing heat unnecessarily. I'm no electrician and wouldn't know HVAC from an air condenser so I'm just throwing that out and hoping it sticks, lol! Good luck!

[SquamishSerpents]

Well, since it's such a tiny room (it's considered a "bedroom" which jacks the rent price right up, but really, it's more of an office) there isn't room to cram everything in one area of the room.

[youbeyouibei]

I'd say try the oil heater for a month and keep track of the change in cost, if any versus using the baseboards only. If you have some idea of what the bills are running using one versus the other, switch and see if it makes any difference, either more or less costly. I dunno...my heating bill runs $300 on the electric and $800 every month and a half on the propane in the winter, so I feel your pain. We live in a 100+ year old farm house...quaint equals not insulated for crap, lol! You might try talking to your power company (electric or gas) about budget billing. It can spread the costs out over the entire year instead of a lump sum payment due each month.

[Bagged1]

Check out richs post about his new heater it's in the new posts

[kitedemon]

I might offer an idea. The issue is heating a room to a given temp and it not being efficient. My idea is a smaller space and heat that.

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/prod...-ft-Greenhouse

I would try something like this with a small heater inside it should help reduce the bills.

[Annarose15]

Oil-filled heaters can also come with different wattage settings. The one I just picked up (Holmes) has 600w, 900w, and 1500w settings. I don't have my thermostat yet, but when I do I will be experimenting with the 900w setting for heating my 10x12 room. You could also get a cheap bookshelf and run flexwatt (just put your bins on shelves like books) - then you don't have to heat the room as hot. I also use the "as-seen-on-tv" twin draft guards on the door so I don't lose heat into the rest of the house.