How Much Electricity Does a Space Heater Use?

I never really asked the question, “How much electricity does a space heater use” when I owned my first house. The house was energy efficient and relatively new, so electricity was pretty cheap.

However, after my wife and I purchased our second house, we quickly found out that it wasn’t very energy efficient. I discovered this when I was fixing a hole in the wall and found newspapers that were acting as insulation.

Needless to say, our heating bills were pretty expensive!

Besides the newspaper acting as insulation, the other reason that our bill was expensive was the window in our front room. It didn’t really close well and it always left a gap between the window and the frame.

We should have gotten a new window right after we purchased the house, but instead we put plastic and foam over the gap. We also got a space heater for when we were in the room.

I don’t remember exactly what we paid for the space heater, but after looking for space heaters on Amazon, I noticed that they are pretty inexpensive. The best seller on the site currently is selling for only $26.99. However, when we are calculating the cost of using a space heater, the upfront cost is not the main cost that we should be concerned with. Instead, the biggest cost of a space heater is the electricity that we will use to power it. And this electricity can get pretty expensive!

However, there are still many times when a space heater can actually save us money, if it is used properly.

Cost factors

There are two factors that help us to figure how much electricity a space heater uses and how much this electricity costs. They are the number of watts that the space heater uses and the cost paid for each kilowatt hour (kWh). The average kWh cost in the United States is around 13 cents, but this cost varies widely from state to state. To figure out your approximate cost, you can click here to see a table of costs per state or you can just look on your electric bill.

After finding your cost per kWh, you can look at the number of watts your space heater uses. Most use 1500 watts per hour. Dividing this number by 1,000 shows that most space heaters use 1.5 kilowatts per hour.

The calculations

Based on an average KWh cost of 13 cents and usage of 1.5 kilowatts per hour, a space heater costs 19.5 cents per hour.

13 cents X 1.5 kilowatts = 19.5 cents per hour

That doesn’t really sound too bad! However, space heaters can get really expensive if we run them all day long. 

Electricity used by a space heater each month

19.5 cents per hour X 24 hours = $4.68 per day

$4.68 per day X 30 days = $140.40 per month

Running a space heater all day long would cost around $140 per month! Obviously, it wouldn’t make sense to run our space heater all day long while we also continue to use our furnace just like normal. Instead, there are ways that we can use a space heater to improve our comfort levels while actually lowering our costs.

The right way to use a space heater

We’ve established that it doesn’t make much sense to run a space heater all month long. However, it may make sense if it is used sparingly and strategically throughout the day. For instance, I will often turn the space heater on when I am taking a shower after a cold run in the winter. This will easily warm up the small space in the bathroom and allow me to get warm without having to turn the furnace up. For just a few cents, I can easily and quickly warm myself up!

For people who work out of their homes, it might make sense to turn down the furnace a couple of degrees and put a space heater on in the office or room that we are using. This way, we can actually use a space heater to save money while we are getting warm.

Next steps

Although it certainly isn’t necessary to know the amount of electricity that a space heater uses uses, it is always good to use an appliance like a space heater efficiently. And if you want to find out your exact costs, just take a look at your electric bill.

After adding the power supply charges and delivery charges, I found that my electricity costs almost 14 cents per kWh, or slightly more than average in the United States. Knowing that the space heater in my home costs me 21 cents per hour to run will allow me to make smarter decisions about how it is used.

The bottom line is that we shouldn’t sacrifice a bit of comfort for a small amount of cost. At a cost of pennies per hour, it is completely fine to use space heaters. Not only do they provide some comfort, but they can also save us a little bit of money.

How do you use one of your appliances or electrical devices to save money? Let us know in the comments!

And thanks for reading!

~Nathan

Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?

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