HWL similar to DWL

[wdb]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Cold hands to make it more difficult to type though!

Man can I ever relate. I make my living at a keyboard. I work from home 2 or 3 days each week. My work area is in the downstairs part of our home, which we don't actively heat in winter. It stays around 50-55 F for several months. I put an electric heater under my desk, which allows me to heat a very small zone. Putting it under the desk has at least 3 advantages:

1. Heater is close to my feet
2. Heat wafts up onto my torso and head from under the edge of the desk
3. Desktop becomes warm, which makes my hands *far* more comfortable

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

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!

Originally Posted by JasonG

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.

Originally Posted by wdb

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.

[Frank Lee]

Maybe wifey would allow a stylish torchiere lamp (same halogen bulb) shortened up to table lamp dimension so that the heat is down lower where you can use it...

Once upon a time I took it upon myself to go through the entire premises and hunt down the phantom power draws; perhaps it was inspired by one of the electric coop's ignorant regressive rate restructurings, where the smallest users pay the most per kwh and they subsidize the large users who pay the least. Oh, to be off the grid and tell them to stuff it. Anyway, it is eye-opening to discover how much junk sneaks into your house and gets plugged in seemingly without you knowing it. I wondered, do I REALLY need a clock in every room? No? Now all the plug-in clocks are gone- I had a battery travel alarm clock sitting in the drawer anyway so why not just put that out and replace the regular alarm clock on my nightstand? Do I really need all those cordless phones? From most locations I went back to old-school corded phones, which also have the bonuses of never needing batteries and working even when the power is out. The microwave has a display that is always on- that got put on a power strip, easily switched on and off. Same with the TV and some other stuff that is always drawing a bit even when "off". And so it went until virtually the only phantom draws in the house that I didn't want to eliminate or disable were the transformers for the door bell and answering machine.

Soon I will figure my average '13 electric bill but I can say now that sometimes it is under 100 kwH/mo and almost never more than 150.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Soon I will figure my average '13 electric bill but I can say now that sometimes it is under 100 kwH/mo and almost never more than 150.

With that low usage, you might as well go off-grid. Your standard service fee must be half your bill! The more efficient you are, the more each KW costs you.

I'm efficient with electricity as far as typical Ahmericans go, but I have Christmas lights (LED) on the roof, a 16ft tree with LED lights, and a 7ft tree with LED lights. Then there is my assortment of robotic vacuums and floor cleaners, and a 44W PC that I leave on 24x7. Heck, I bought the Roku 2 instead of the Roku 3 because it draws only 2W instead of 4W. Something most would not factor into their purchasing decision.

I applaud your effort. I just can't be bothered to flip a switch each time I microwave something, when the power draw is only a watt. For $0.70 per year, I'll remain lazy. Plus the clock on the microwave is useful to me.

[Frank Lee]

I figured there are already clocks everywhere- there's one on the battery operated programmable thermostat, one on the computer, I have one of those atomic clocks, the phone in my pocket, etc. As far as power strip effort goes, I'm already there to manually open the door and program the cook time and power!

You are correct that the service fee is greater than the amount I pay for the actual electricity. Much of the year the same is true of my natural gas utility. That could be fixed if these Midwestern dullards would adopt progressive billing like PG&E. I stay on the grid, though, because I have a well pump to run and I don't want to come up with an alternate method. I don't want to really invest in this place because I should get outta here (right- been saying that for 15 years).

[Frank Lee]

Good Question: Are There Health Benefits To The Cold? « CBS Minnesota

As you know I'm ever the optimist, seeing the bright side of everything. So here is the bright side to freezing your buns off.

[California98Civic]

To avoid on/off cycles of gas heater, use the thermostat to "pulse" to a temp higher than desired and then turn t-stat down to a temp much lower than desired. The goal would be average temps similar to the ideal temp you would have selected. Maybe it works? Maybe it wastes? But you would certainly spend more time fiddling with the thermostat!

[Frank Lee]

I have a gas water heater that I nominally set to "vacation"; about 5 minutes before the evening shower I click the stat so it fires up then turn it right back down to vacation- it stays on. The shower is the only time I want really hot water and the rest of the time the water is quite hot enough for laundry, hand washing, dishes and whatnot. I'm not sure but it's possible that when I click it on that's the only "on" cycle every 24 hours.

The next step is to run a string from the bathroom to a lever on the stat...

[elhigh]

I'm in a similar boat out of necessity. My old heat pump, which I can't afford to replace yet, just can't do much that's useful when the temps go below 40. And turning on the emergency heat just galls me.

So I set the 'stat at 60 and pull on a vest. I never take my hat off anyway, baldness has left me with NO tolerance for a chill on my scalp.

We have one of those oil-filled electric radiators. It's fantastic. Sweetie sets up her jigsaw puzzles/jewelry project/God only knows on the card table, the radiator fits under there, and a large tablecloth drapes all around and keeps the heat in there with her. Some leaks out around her legs and washes up past her torso.

I haven't found a functional difference between that $40 radiator and those $400 copper-infused Radiant Humidity Heaters Save 55% On Your Utility Bills Amish Made, so anytime I see one, I tell everyone I can that it's a bill of goods.

[Frank Lee]

There is no difference; a watt is a watt is a watt. That's why my halogen lamps work just as well as "official" space heaters.