How to Save Money with a Portable Heater
It’s that time of year again – trees are bare, temperatures are dropping, and soon, if not already, we’ll be scrapping ice off our cars. This is the time of the year when it’s difficult to resist the lure of cranking the thermostat. Thankfully, there are alternatives to staying warm and cozy that won’t send your power bill soaring. Here are 5 ways to save money with commercial portable heaters.
Don’t Warm Every Room in Your House
What rooms are most used in your house? Is it the guest suite? The Attic? The Basement? Or your kitchen, living room, and bedroom? The first step to reducing your power bill during the colder months is to figure out which spaces you spend the most time in. These are the rooms that you should be paying to heat, rather than paying to keep your laundry room warm all day. Unlike central heating, commercial portable heaters use less energy and direct heat in concreted areas. Choosing to heat one or two rooms rather than your entire house will save you money during the colder months.
Check Your Temperature Settings
Using commercial portable heaters instead of central heating will only save you money in the long run if you pay attention to your temperature settings. If your commercial portable heater is running on full power all day and night, you may not notice very much cost-savings. Check your temperature settings throughout the day and adjust them accordingly.
Pay Attention to Usage
Now that you have adjusted the temperature setting on your commercial portable heater, you need to pay attention to how much you are using it. Commercial portable heaters can reduce your power bill, but not if they are running all day every day. Instead of using your commercial portable heater whenever you feel a chill, reserve it for the more extreme dips in temperature. If you are running your commercial portable heater in one room, avoid turning your furnace on to heat the rest of the house.
Keep the Heat Inside
Switching to commercial portable heaters won’t save you money if the heat is escaping from your home through the walls, attics, and windows. Luckily, air sealing, insulating, and weather stripping your doors and windows can solve the problem and ensure your commercial portable heater is working as efficiently as possible. If your home has a chimney, you may also be losing heat through your fireplace. Make sure the damper is closed when the fireplace isn’t in use or else your open chimney is sucking a tremendous amount of expensive, warm air out of the house. Additionally, ventilation fans, the ones commonly found in bathrooms and kitchens, can draw heated air out of the house, so make sure you turn them off when they aren’t in use. Lastly, if you are heating a space with a commercial portable heater, make sure no one else in the house has opened a window or door because the cold air will counteract the heater.
If you do decide to opt for a portable commercial heater, make sure you buy the right kind. Click here for more details.