Ok, I’d like to clear a few things up before we go over this. I’m sure if you have been shopping around for infrared heaters you have seen those “slick willy” advertisements that say something like this “Cut your heating bills by 50%, just buy our heater NOW and plug it in and start saving today!OMG!!!”, lol. I shake my head every time I see those ads, don’t fall for that bs.
To set the record straight, infrared heaters themselves are not solely responsible for saving you money on your heating bill, they are just a tool. The act of “zone” heating your home while using a more efficient heating source than your furnace or baseboard heat to heat the main rooms you use the most vs paying to fully heat your entire home’s unused areas like the basement or additional rooms is what is actually saving you on your heating bill.
A better example of “zone” heating is instead of keeping your thermostat set at 70F-75F(or whatever your comfort level is) all winter long heating up the used and unused areas of your home, people instead keep their thermostat turned down to the 50’s – 60’s while using an infrared heater or a space heater of some type to maintain the areas they are most often using to their comfort level. By doing this you save on the energy consumption you would have used to keep your whole house heated at the 70F-75F vs the difference in energy cost of what it takes to maintain your home heated at the 50F – 60F plus the minimal cost of running an infrared heater to heat the high traffic areas of your home to the 70F-75F you want.
For those of you who speak in math equations
Cost to heat whole house at 70F to 75F – (Cost to heat whole house in the 50’s or 60’s + Cost to heat main areas of use at 70F to 75F with an infrared heater) = Savings
You may be thinking “I can do this with a regular $50 electric heater I can pick up on clearance”, and you would be right. However, that $50 heater wouldn’t be near as efficient (you wouldn’t save as much $) as a good quality electric infrared heater since infrared heaters require far less energy to produce large amounts of heat compared to the typical electric convection heater.
So back to the original question, how much can you save using Infrared heaters to heat your home? The answer is, there is no definite answer. How much you save will determine on how you use your infrared heater, the size of the area you are heating, what kind of heat you are currently using (propane, electric, fuel), and how well insulated the area you are trying to heat is. All I can say is, for us, using our infrared heaters for zone heating (we use two for our main level) we save $400-$600/year on heating costs depending on how cold the winters get here in northern Minnesota. I know a few friends and family members of mine save anywhere from $300-$500/year up to $700 -$1000/year zone heating their homes with infrared heaters.
Needless to say, its easy to see the reason why infrared heaters are getting so popular due to the amount of money they can save you. $500-$700+/yr may not sound like HUGE savings but in today’s economy every little bit helps.
I hope this information helps better clarify how you can save $$$ on your heating bill by using an infrared heater to zone heat your home.
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