Oil heater=crazy power bill!

[SlitherinSisters]

Are you sure it's the oil heater? Is it an old oil heater? A big room?

My snake room is a 12 x 12 foot room in the basement. Two of the four walls are the foundation cinder blocks-no insulation and it has two windows that are garbage. I plan to insulate the windows this winter, but my bill only goes up about $30 a month from running my oil heater almost non-stop. I have it on a thermostat set to 75.

[MrLang]

Are you sure it's the oil heater? Is it an old oil heater? A big room?

My snake room is a 12 x 12 foot room in the basement. Two of the four walls are the foundation cinder blocks-no insulation and it has two windows that are garbage. I plan to insulate the windows this winter, but my bill only goes up about $30 a month from running my oil heater almost non-stop. I have it on a thermostat set to 75.

Thank god. It's my first month in my new place and I was seriously freaking out reading this thread as I haven't received my first electric bill.

I'm using one of those dinky electric fan powered space heaters. It runs probably 25% of the time. I think the watts were only 400 or so, so I'm hoping it's not too bad.

[joefer13]

Not for certain it's the oil heater yet, it is at least 10 years old. It was given to me so unsure exactly. It's been a mix of med min and max usage with it. But I am having a hard time thinking of anything else it could ne

[Annarose15]

I'm with Stephanie on this one - my oil heater maybe increases my electricity bill $30/month in the winter ($40/mo cheaper than the blower-style). Have you sealed the vents, doors and windows in that room? If you are letting your regular central heat blow into your room, then the two temps are competing with each other (central heat would drive your ambients down, making the heater work harder). Block any vents entirely, and seal any other cracks you can find that would allow air from the rest of the house or the outdoors into the snake room (as-seen-on-tv twin draft guards are great for internal doors).

ADD: My snake room stays 79-80deg in the winter with my heater.

[joefer13]

Have an oil furnace that keeps house above 60, quartz Heater with blower in kitchen keeps house warmer. Up too 1000 feet it says. Insulation is poor and windows single pane. House typically 65-70

[kitedemon]

I have a huge increase as well it all depends on the ambient temps and quality of insulation. I have seaweed in the walls and heating the room to 80º on a cold winter day (-27 outside -16ºF) a 2400w (delonghi) oil heater could not do the best was 76º. It ran maxed out most of the time and tripled the power bill.

Suggesting I am lying does not sit well. I never even in the early spring had only a 30$ increase with the oil heater but then again I live where it gets cold. I track my power usage very closely as I run a business out of my home and need to keep accurate business records so this is an increase in usage of power over a 5 year average before the snakes arrived and adjusted to local rates.

The power consumption calculator in my area says running a 2400w heater (like mine) maxed (also Like mine) costs 231$ a month. Running at 240w (10% power) is 24$ a month if you live where I am.

http://www.nspower.ca/en/home/energy...alculator.aspx

[MrLang]

Hehe Nova Scotia... I think we found the discrepancy

[kitedemon]

Clearly rates are different and areas are different and suggesting that a given dollar amount must be wrong with no thought to anything else is assuming too much.

[OhhWatALoser]

If your worried about the electric bill, don't use lights for heat unless lightning is needed, you are wasting a lot of power producing light instead of heat. 40 watt rhp heats my 36x30x12 cages easily, drawing a fraction of that on the thermostat to maintain temps. I bet each cage costs me a couple bucks each month to run.

[kitedemon]

So a 40w appliance uses less power than a 12w to 16w light?

I pay very high power rates and the light cost 6-8$ a year. If a RHP is only on 6 hours a day it would cost just short of 14$ a year more than twice as much now if we were talking a 40w light it would be different. Even if it is dimmed and fully regulated that is 25% power on the RHP most of the time.

Lets not make things up shall we?