Electric Radiant Heaters vs Electric Central Heat (furnace, bedrooms, insulation)

[FloridaKash]

Okay folks. I need some opinions. Just bought this house this summer and winter is approaching. I live in Central Florida so it never gets super cold here, but during December and January the temps can drop below freezing. Last year we had 3 - 4 weeks of low in the 30's and 40's.

My new house has Electric Resistant Heating for the furnace. Our last rental had a heat pump. Pretty terrified what heating costs may be with an electric furnace at night. To lower the heating bills I am thinking I should place an electric oil filled radiator in each occupied bedroom during the night (4 bedrooms occupied) and place them on low with thermostats.

Details of House:
2200SF
Built 1979
2 Stories
3 Bedrooms up
1 bedroom and everything else down.
Single Pane windows
Single Pane Sliders (2)
Insulation is sufficient according to home inspection


I will need to replace the A/C unit in the next few years and plan on doing so with a heat pump. In the meantime, I think this may be cost saving. Thoughts?

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by FloridaKash

I live in Central Florida so it never gets super cold here
I will need to replace the A/C unit... doing so with a heat pump.

Not "will need to"... DO need to.
Do that... and the sooner the better.
The heat pump will have "supplemental" electric heat built in to it.

...thinking I should place an electric oil filled radiator...

nah.
Don't spend money on anything else other than the usual insulation work
that ALL houses need (sealing and infiltration etc)

hth

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by FloridaKash

To lower the heating bills I am thinking I should place an electric oil filled radiator in each occupied bedroom during the night (4 bedrooms occupied) and place them on low with thermostats.

Here's the deal with electric, you get 3,412 BTU per kWh. That doesn't change no matter what you're using; cheap baseboard, oil filled, some overpriced unit like the Edenpure or even a hairdryer. They are all 100% efficient and produce 3,412 BTU per kWh.

How they differ is different ways of distributing that heat, for example cheap baseboard is on or off. It's either full blast or nothing, this doesn't provide a very comfortable environment. In comparison oil or hydronic electric heaters heat a liquid, this acts like a buffer that slowly heats up and can store heat, when the heating element turns off this stored heat will slowly dissipate into the room. Much more comfortable than the ups and downs of regular electric baseboard.

Having said that to maintain an average temperature it's going to cost you the same no matter what you use. If the rooms you have now all have their own thermostats....... you won't save a penny and will just waste money on the new heaters.

The only way you'll save a few bucks is you can't control the heat in individual rooms/zones. In that case you could turn down the heat in the rest of the house and use one of these heaters to heat just that room.



----edit---

Just to so it's clear this doesn't apply to heat pumps unless it's really cold and using it's supplementary electric heat.