Why turn off lights?

[RobertISaar]

slightly? 9 vs 14 = 55.5% more energy needed for the CFL.

in the end, it's only 5 watts, but the LED use just over half the power the CFL does to create the same amount of light.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by S-cort

You are best off using the gas furnace and supplementing with electric space heaters as little as possible.

I'll match that and see you one better: I use those yellow halogen worklights in the winter as "extreme zone heating" and besides the fact that they throw out lots of nice heat, they throw lots of light too thus enabling me to keep the regular- and not very good at emitting heat- lighting off.

Disclaimer: This works great for me but do it at your own risk: Take the glass out of the worklamps and replace that with screen for better heat transfer with some small measure of safety retained.

I don't like the idea of using regular ceiling lighting for heat because heat rises and my ceiling and attic get heated quite enough already. And, they are too far away to feel any of their heat. In fact, I got the idea for using the worklamps as zone heaters because I had been considering adding a heatlamp or heated floor to my bathroom when I had the insight that I didn't want my heat source up above, trying to run heat downward. So I place them on the floor or on a countertop; when the heat rises up and out I can really feel it. This radiant heat is actually nicer- feels warmer- than what space heaters put out, radiant or fan-assisted.

[jjackstone]

Frank,

Do you place a small computer fan behind the light to help distribute the heat? Probably only cost a couple extra watts.
JJ

[Frank Lee]

I keep a small table fan behind the light I have on the counter by the bathroom sink. The ones on the floor work fantastic with radiation only.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister

Also , the apartment was on the 2nd of 3 floors . So the apartment had a conditioned space above me and below me . And only 2 outside walls . The side walls were common with conditioned space , also...

I lived in a townhouse once that had 2 shared walls. I wondered if the house wasn't warmed or cooled, if it would leach any significant energy from the surrounding units. Would be interesting to see how cool it gets in the winter with zero heating.

But , I have gas heat . Except for the 12,000 BTU mini split A/C - Heat Pump we installed this summer . I have been experimenting with the HP ( living room and dining room ) . So far , I think I like it .

God bless
Wyr

Heat pump should be more economical until about 40 degrees outside temperature I believe, depending on local utility rates.

[bdesj]

From 3/7/13

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

I have propane heat, one gallon of propane cost $1.50 and has 92,000 btu, furnace is just better than 90% efficent so I get about 83,000 btu of heat for $1.50, at 12(using the above cost, mine's closer to 15) cents a KWH, $1.50 buys 12.5 kwhs or (1 kwh = 3412 btu) or 42650 btu, about half the heat from electricity as from propane. Electric heat would cost me 2x as much per month.

in Iowa, apparently?
I don`t think I`ve ever bought propane at that price here in northern NV, certainly not in the 3 years that I`ve been tracking my gas purchases. As it happens, my tank did get filled in Mar of this year... at $3.54/Gal. Last month it was the highest I`ve ever been hit with at $4.05

What are other people paying around the globe for LP?

[Ryland]

The problem with heating with light bulbs is a great deal of the heat is infrared, so if you have a light bulb next to a window then nearly half of the heat from that light bulb is shinning out the window and you are slowly heating the outside, even a room darkening shade over the windows will help keep the heat in, a space blanket over the window will reflect even more of the heat back in to the living space.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

If electricity is less costly (as I think it is), then lights can be beneficial for reducing heat loss, but certainly NOT useful for creating enough heat to offset outside cold.

Working around with lamps for heating is too dangerous, and it would still not be so efficient as a purpose-built heater.

[topcat]

It all comes down to how much a unit of energy costs from your electric (light) and from your regular heating. In England, 1 kWh of energy from electricity costs about 15p, but an equivalent 1kWh of energy from natural gas costs about 5p. So for a 100W incandescent bulb, the approx 90W of waste heat is about 3x more expensive than if you let it come from your gas heating. But 90W is a drop in the ocean of our total heating costs here... It's worth using LED/CFL in summer when you don't need any extra heat input, but less worth worrying about it in winter.

[Cobb]

Since we have had near 0 f weather here I can see why a regular or hid bulb would be used over a cf one. This cold weather makes the cf bulbs dim,very dim. No idea if they use more power when they are dimmer vs full brightness,but the mercury vapor one we have had no change in brightness.

I recently purchased a keroscene round heater to use to supplement our heat pump. As you may of may not know they start to slack off as the temps go below freezing of water. Its all electric at that point. Ive used the keroscene heater on its lowest setting af ew hour every evening and its very fuel efficient. Think a gallon is like 3,50 a gallon. Nice to have incase the power fails.