Anyone know anything about heaters?

[~Lisa~]

We have a baseboard heater in the house.. after a fire with one of them (an older one) the breaker for that has been turned off and now I am faced with turn it back on for the newer heater or buy a plug in heater does anyone know which is safer and or cheaper to run? Have to make a decision soon at 30 degrees outside this house is COLD lol

 

[Marty]

We have a gas heater in the living room and down the end of the hall. It keeps this house pretty warm, sometimes too warm, but of course this house is small only about 1200 square feet or less I'm guessing. We turned everything over to gas a few years ago after all the electric bills were out of sight including the stove too. It makes a huge difference. We rented the ugly gas tank out in the yard at first, but then decided to buy one. That way, when we need to buy gas, we call around to all the companies and see who has the best deal on prices as it always seems to be a bidding war. Right now they are all running sales. If we have the money at hand, we will fill it up all the way, if not, then we only get the amount we want at that time. We save tons of money by doing the gas and I'd never go back to electric again. Between the heater and all gas utilities it costs us about $700. a year total.

 

[Ashley]

Well our heat runs off of propane. That said its not that old of a house, built in 99', however the guy was a drunk and built it himself. By the looks of somethings done I would he was feeling pretty well when he did them. The wireing is not up to code(slowly fixing what we can), well isnt up to code and a handfull of other things.

The house has cheap windows and a patio door that isnt in right. We plastic all windows but one or two in the winter. We keep the heat set at 70. The hosue is decent size. It has to full, almosts finished floors at around 1500 square feet each level. Last year we also ran two electric heaters for the kids as needed. They worked awsome, they could heat like crazy if needed. We ran them on low and often times the boy would get up in the middle of the night to shut his off. They didnt increase the electric bill by much. In the winter our bill increased maybe max of $30 a month, but thats with more tv due to less daylight, water tank heaters, and the two electric heaters going most of the time. As well as an occasional one down stairs to help keep dogs warm.

 

[Miniv]

We have a gas heater in the living room and down the end of the hall. It keeps this house pretty warm, sometimes too warm, but of course this house is small only about 1200 square feet or less I'm guessing. We turned everything over to gas a few years ago after all the electric bills were out of sight including the stove too. It makes a huge difference. We rented the ugly gas tank out in the yard at first, but then decided to buy one. That way, when we need to buy gas, we call around to all the companies and see who has the best deal on prices as it always seems to be a bidding war. Right now they are all running sales. If we have the money at hand, we will fill it up all the way, if not, then we only get the amount we want at that time. We save tons of money by doing the gas and I'd never go back to electric again. Between the heater and all gas utilities it costs us about $700. a year total.

Marty,

When you say "gas", do you mean propane or ???

 

[Marty]

Yes I guess I mean propane

 

[Minimor]

The plug in heaters are NOT safe, or at least not if you are leaving them run when you are not in the room. Sure, you can get them now with safety switches which shut them off if they tip over, but tipping over is not the only hazard. Such heaters cause numerous fires every winter. Probably the biggest hazzard with them is positioning them too close to other things....for instance, a bed, and then a blanket gets pushed off the bed in the night and ends up on or too near to the heater, which then sets that blanket on fire. As well, these heaters are prone to shorting out--and an electric heater which shorts out is very likely to start a fire. We do use a couple of electric heaters, but only when we are in the room & are right there in the event that there is a problem.

I am not sure what kind of gas/propane heaters Marty is using, but with any gas heater you want to make sure that you have proper ventilation, and you absolutely want to have a carbon monoxide detector that is functioning properly.

My friend's husband is a fire inspector (formerly a fire safety instructor and prior to that a firefighter) and if you want to see him shudder, just mention running any sort of auxiliary heater inside the home!!

 

[~Lisa~]

Thanks guys

Holly that is my fear at 25 degrees last night I had to break down and turn on the electric baseboard heater. Not sure how it works as the electric is in the wall somewhere not a plug in. But anything electric still kinda scares me however do not have much of a choice right now poor Raven is to skinny to go without any kinda heat lol

I would love to replace with propane but not feasable right now my whole house is electric well ok that is just the one baseboard heater- kitchen and water heater anyway

 

[Katiean]

I bought a brand new forced air heater last year. I explained the whole heating problems we were having and they installed this bright shiny new heater that when it started to get cold the only thing getting warm was under the house. We went back to out Kerosene heater. This fall I called the heating co and told them that the exact same problem still happened with their new heater as with the old one. The guy came out and connected the duct work. It works like a dream. We do still have the Kerosene heater for back up. We are holding a weeks worth of Kerosene for emergencies.