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Old 12-26-2013, 10:38 PM   #12 (permalink)
redpoint5
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Location: Oregon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee View Post
We just came out of a -20 cold snap; it's been below average cold since the end of Octobrr.

I use "extreme zone heating" via halogen worklamps with the glass removed.
I won't even attempt to compete with you, Frank. There is no way my wife would allow our home to take on the construction site feel. Very creative idea though!

Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonG View Post
This year we placed a 1500w ceramic heater on the living room and one in the bathroom.
This causes the furnace to run only when they can't keep up.
This roughly cut the gas bill in half without major effect on the electric bill.
Electric heat is about 3x the cost of gas in the NW, and we have cheap electricity.

If you're heating only small areas with electricity and letting the rest of the house get cold, then zonal heating can be very efficient. It seems like zonal heating was huge in this area around the '90s and early '00s.

The problem with open floor plans is that everything is 1 zone. About the only thing I can zone off is the bedrooms, which I have done by closing the registers for those areas.

If you have central gas heating, you can continue zone heating with the cheaper gas by closing registers in the rooms you don't want heated.

Quote:
Originally Posted by wdb View Post
I put an electric heater under my desk, which allows me to heat a very small zone...
I have a conventional desk at work, and a rolling desk with my computer on it. One day, after about 7 years of being at the computer desk, I put my legs under my conventional desk and noticed it was unusually warm. Then I discovered a heating plate underneath attached to an outlet. For at least 7 years this heater had been on! I've got it disconnected now, but it has me wondering how much of the $1M/month electric bill is needless waste.
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