Question about commercial elect. power

[BelgianPup]

I'm asking this here as a last resort, as no one else seems to know.

You have a S&B house.
You get power from the local company.
The company charges 12 cents per KW.
You have a 1500 kw space heater.
The heater has 12 levels from low to high.

The Question:  If you run the heater at 6, does it cost half of what it does on high (12)?

 

[bullfrog]

I do know that when I run my two position ceramic heater on low (750 watts) while running my load sensing generator then turn it on high(1500 watts) the generator alters speed to make up for the load. So it would make sense there is a greater load due to more current through the heating elements as the fan speed doesn’t seem to change and remains constant. I guess it depends on how your heater fan is wired and whether the fan speed is variable as to the overall change in power usage. I would think measuring with a one of those cheap plug in line meters while operating would tell you exactly how much power it uses at different speeds.

 

[highdesertranger]

It all depends on the individual heater. Those el cheapo heaters are hit or miss as far as quality. You are assuming the half setting is actually half the heat output. maybe yes maybe no. plug it in to a Kill-a-Watt to find your answer. It might not even be 1500 on high. Highdesertranger

 

[tx2sturgis]

Your electric company charges for KWH (kilowatt hour) not KW. And a plug-in heater can NOT be 1500 KW....it should be 1500 watts or 1.5 KW.

Those settings are for the built-in thermostat and since that depends on the ambient temps, in a very cold and/or large room the mid level settings might use as much energy per hour as the high settings, not being able to keep the room well heated.

In a smaller room, as the thermostat cycles on and off, the mid level settings might use less energy overall, but the KW used when the heater in running would likely be about the same.

 

[Freelander]

I know in my S&B's home the cost for kWh varies a lot, especially in the summer time.

 

[Weight]

The Cosmo-Demonic Electric Utility Company has a charge for delivery, another charge for supply. Both are total of many smaller charges and fees determined by how many KWH used. Plus there is a Customer Charge based on how many days between the meter readings. I have an oil filled radiator type electric heater that has two elements, one 600 watts the other 900 watts. Therefor three settings 600, 900, or 1500 watts. It will use correspondingly less electric at 600 than 1500. But, having a thermostat, it may run 60 minutes an hour at 600W but less than 30 minutes per hour at 1500W if the room temperature is same for both tests.

 

[RoamerRV428]

you almost can't take it to this level cause size of room, temp outside and how much does it need to draw to compensate for colder temps? and then it is 'brand, make, model, OL' EL cheapo crap brand like HDR mentioned will never be the same as an energy efficient brand then you are talking, ceramic? oil filled?

so no....running a button on level 6 is not just 1/2 as much cheaper then running it on 12 higher setting

just too many variables on this one to say 'definite' to your question

 

[BelgianPup]

This is a $450 Edenpure space heater. It is either on, running steadily, or off, there is no thermostat, just the different setting numbers.

 

[Firebuild]

This is a $450 Edenpure space heater.  It is either on, running steadily, or off, there is no thermostat, just the different setting numbers.

I'm pretty sure Edenpure heaters that don't have a thermostat use PTC technlogy, which still means it's aiming for a specific temperature, not a specific output, which is going to make power consumption variable (I think - right?).

 

[maki2]

a single killowatt equals 1,000 watts. An electric heater is 1,500 watts, meaning at full power it is drawing 1.5 killowatts. I don't know how many watts each of the indicators on your dial represents. But if you were to purchase a KiloWat meter device which plugs into your wall outlet and then plug your heater into it you can find out exactly what you want to know because it measures how much power the device is using. Other than using something like that all you can do is take a guess-timate as to what those numbers on the dial mean in terms of actual watts.

 

[BelgianPup]

Thanks, Maki2. Electricity is magic, to me! I might as well stop fighting it.