Portable heater with low energy consumption?

imsocoldpleasehelpme

Hi all, i pretty much use a small heater that sits next to me and keeps me warm. There isn't any heating in one part of the house that only has enough room for me to hang out in. This tends to bring the electricity bill up and I was just wondering if there is a portable heater out there with very low power consumption?.

Thanks

ImYoungxD

Use an electric blanket to save the most but you will be the only person getting heat
Or use a radiant heater that has 750w setting to heat up the room

Jamie Hall

The electric blanket is a good idea, Or a small radiant directed just at you. Whatever, remember that heat (BTU) and power (KW) are pretty much the same thing -- you can't have one without the other.

GW

You are describing electric “resistance “ heat, and it’s like your toaster or hair dryer, just simple electric. That’s what fossil fuel dominates the heating world.

JUGHNE

What do you have for heat in the rest of the house?

SuperJ

Most portable heaters are electric so the output will match the wattage 1:1. That being said things like a blanket or a directional radiant heater (as mentioned above) may let you use less energy since the heating is being focused directly on you and not wastefully heating up the vicinity. Electric blankets/seat cushions in particular are pretty low power compared to space heaters.
A more Cadillac option is a heated hoody/socks. Look in the power tool section of Home Depot. They have hoodies that are heated by lithium ion power tool batteries so they run for a long time and keep you cozy. They're meant for construction workers freezing their butts off outside in the winter.

imsocoldpleasehelpme

Sorry for the late reply you guys, thanks for the tips. I am moving into a new apartment with those old 50's heaters that just shoot hot air out (not sure what thats called). You have to be standing next to them to feel the heat. There is a thermostat set for the whole apartment building so they all rely on one thermostat.

I can't change the setting, so this "new apartment building" ive lived in before, and it was always cold in this apartment in the bedroom. Didn't have plastic on the windows because ive never installed them before. Anyways, I used a little White Westinghouse heater from Zellers. I'm now using a honeymade heater. The building is 70 years old, so what can i say?.

Anyways, i like the idea of an electric blanket but I think id have to position it right, cus getting it off of me every time to go get something from the kitchen is annoying, maybe ill just sit on it.

Or maybe i can just buy a thermal sweater.. or something. THat's low on power consumption right?. I think I paid an extra $50 a month when I used the little heater, which isn't bad.

Leonard

I've installed plastic over windows of a heated garge as the "storm windows" it helped a lot.

Would guess an electrically heated vest/sweater would only draw around 25 ?? watts.

For operating cost estimates below I've ASSUMED the heaters are heating 100% of the time. In real life they may have thermostats or you may shut them off.
I've used NH electricity costs of ~ 17 cents/KWH, see your bill for what you pay. It varies wildly by state ( heard of 5 to 35 cents)

So a vest drawing 25 watts costs ~ 4/10 cent per hour to run. ( ~10 cents/day.... $3.11/month)
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A typical portable electric space heater draws ~ 1500 watts and would cost 25.5 cents/hour to run ( $6.12/day ..... ~$187/month)
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Neighbor got a heated vest with rechargeable lithium battery for snowmobiling , ~ 6 hour bat life. Says he wears it in the house and keeps house temp low, very comfortable. They also sell heated pants, gloves, socks. Bats have a lifetime, maybe 300-500 recharge cycles. But can use a plug in wall transformer instead.
bat life ..... http://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries