Comparing Heater Costs This Winter

Using a propane heater can help to keep toasty warm this winter. If you’re heating an indoor space, you should almost always be using an electric heater or a vented fuel-burning heater. Other spaces can be warmed with a variety of options, including propane, kerosene, electric, or natural gas.

Depending on your space, there are a number of pros and cons of each style of heater, as discussed in detail at HeaterHut.

While everyone wants to keep fuel costs down when heating their homes or workspaces, it can be tricky to figure out which fuel style is the most cost-effective for you. Fortunately, a few quick rules-of-thumb can help you to decide which fuel style may be the best for your room as well as your budget. However, if a few different heater styles would work for your space, sometimes the deciding factor comes down to total cost of ownership.

The ABC’s of BTU’s and kWh’s

You have likely seen heater manufacturers advertise the total heat output of their units in BTUs. This stands for British Thermal Unit, and is the standard unit of measurement for heat energy, used for fuel-burning heaters such as kerosene and propane heaters.

Typically, electric heaters such as oil and ceramic heaters list their energy output in kilowatt hours, or kWh.

To compare the heat output of different types of heaters, we need to come up with some common ground between them. To get us started, check out the average fuel quantities needed to create 1,000,000 BTUs from the different heaters.

Kerosene — 7.4 gallons per million BTUs.
Propane Gas -> 10.9 gal / million BTUs
Electric -> 293 kWh / million BTUs

With these figures, it’s easy to multiply the average costs of the different fuel types by the quantity needed to produce 1 million BTUs. This shows you an average cost for your heater to create one million BTUs of heat depending on the fuel type you’re checking out.

As an example, because kerosene costs about .25 a gallon, it would cost .65 for 1 million BTUs of heat (2.25 x 7.4 = 16.65). Let’s do the rest of the math for you.

Costs per One Million BTUs
Kerosene — .65 per million BTUs
Propane = .70 / million BTUs
Electricity -> .23 per 1 million BTUs

Since fuel costs fluctuate by region and season, you’ll want to figure these numbers using approximate fuel costs in your area. However, the use of this quick formula can save lots of cash when deciding which fuel and heater are the right one for you.

As discussed on HeaterHut, there may be other factors to consider when making your heater purchase. You should never use a kerosene or propane heater indoors without adequate ventilation. But while many different heaters can have a great effect on the comfort of your home this season, some quick calculations can help you to find the heater style with the smallest effect on your budget.

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Question by camerontai: Is the glare in the screen of the Sony Touch Edition (PRS-600) to badly i won`t enjoy reading in the device?
I really want to buy an e-reader but i live in Argentina. The B&N Nook is no good here because its wireless connection won`t work. The Kindle 3 would be really nice to have plus its 3g works in this country but it only sells via Amazon and i dont have anybody in the US to buy it for me. So that leaves me with the Sony Touch Edition (PRS-600). But i read it screen suffers from glare…

Answers:

Answer by NONE
All screens have some glare depending on the lighting. The word “glare” relative to the 600 touch screen is inaccurate though. The glare is no more than any other screen but it does have some reflection that is greater than non-touch screens. Yes, the issue does exist but whether or not it’s actually a problem is an individual thing. Personally, I don’t consider it to be a problem on my Sony reader and I read three to four books per week, on average. I have the 900 which has a one-inch larger touch screen than the 600. Just so you know, the 600 doesn’t have wi-fi or 3G. All content must be downloaded to the computer then copied to the device or to a memory card. Even the 900 with 3G can only connect to the Sony e-book store and as far as I know, you can only purchase from there if you’re in the US or Canada so you would still have to download to a computer.

If Kindle e-books are available in your country, I’m pretty sure you can have Amazon ship the Kindle to you there. Their customer service is wonderful so I’d suggest that you contact them and check out their user forum as well. The Kindle 3 release date inventory sold out already and the new ship date is sometime in early October so you have lots of time to look into it. Even if you were to pre-order now, you won’t be charged until it ships. Amazon returns are a breeze but in your case, it would be quite expensive.

As for the Nook, it is a nice looking device but it’s not a quality piece of hardware and Barnes’ customer service is poor even in the US. I’ve done lots of research and comparisons of all three reader brands and I don’t even recommend the Nook in the US. Outside the US, buying it could be a huge mistake. Even if it would connect there, it only connects to the B&N store but so far, you can’t buy from the B&N store outside the US.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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Selecting the Right Portable Heater for Your Home

Having a large heating system can be great for warming a house, but if you only want to heat certain areas or if you’re away from your main home then they don’t do much good. Instead, you’re going to need to use a portable heater that can be brought to exactly where you need it and will produce just as much heat as you want. Many of these portable heaters can be used in shops, on job sites, in the garage, or even when out camping or otherwise away from home.

The trick, of course, is finding the portable heater that will do exactly what you want it to do without having to mess with things that you don’t. There are a number of things that you should consider in order to make sure that you get the best heater for your needs, including how easy it is to move and the type of fuel source that the heater uses. To help you choose the portable heater that meets your needs, here are a few suggestions of what to look for.

Portability

Obviously, one of the main advantages that a portable heater has is the fact that it’s portable. A heater may not be as easily portable as you would like, though, and depending on your intended use this may be a problem. Stop to consider how often you’ll likely be moving the heater and whether it can be easily moved to a new location if necessary. If you’re planning on using the heater in the same location much of the time then portability isn’t a major concern, but if one of the selling points of the heater is the fact that you can take it with you then you’re going to want to make sure that it’s easy to transport.

Electrical or Fuel Needs

Your heater will require fuel or power in order to produce heat, and this should be taken into consideration as well. If your portable heater is going to be used around the house or in places with ready access to electricity then a corded electrical heater might serve you well. At the same time, you’ll definitely want to have a heater that uses propane or some other fuel if you’re going to be using the heater in outdoors locations or in places and situations where you won’t have access to electricity. Make sure that the heater you choose will work where and when you need it to, and that the cost to keep it running won’t be more than you’re willing to pay.

Setup Concerns

Another consideration with portable heaters should be how easy or difficult the heater is to set up when you want to use it. Many heaters simply need to be placed where you want them and turned on or started, but others may require some form of mounting or other types of stabilization. You’re going to want to make sure that any setup required, either for the first usage or every use, is easy enough to do that you can accomplish it in a reasonable amount of time. This includes the physical setup of heater, the connecting of a fuel source, the time it takes to get the heater started, and how long it takes the heater to start producing heat.

Heat Production

Make sure that the portable heater that you choose can produce as much heat as you need it to. Most heaters will have a suggested area that it can heat printed on the box, as well as a BTU rating that tells how much heat it actually produces. This will let you know whether a particular heater will be able to do the job that you need, or whether you’ll need more than one heater. You should also remember that if it produces too much heat for the area you’re heating then you might have to adjust the temperature on the heater numerous times in order to keep the air temperature from being too warm or too cold.

Storage

Unless you live in the tundra, there’s a good chance that you’re going to need to put your portable heater into storage for at least a decent portion of the year. Take into consideration how easy or difficult it will be to store the heater you choose and whether you’re likely to damage it if it’s stored incorrectly. You should also determine exactly how much storage space the heater will take up and make sure that you have somewhere at home, in your garage, or at your workplace where the heater can be stored.

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