PAUL asked:
I bought a space heater that runs on 900 or 1500 watts. I usually put it to the higher setting and run it for an hour or two, once a day or every other day. Should I expect a significant change in my electric bill or is this amount of wattage low?
I bought a space heater that runs on 900 or 1500 watts. I usually put it to the higher setting and run it for an hour or two, once a day or every other day. Should I expect a significant change in my electric bill or is this amount of wattage low?
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The 1500 W heater will consume around 90 units of electricity per month (for using it @ 2 hours/ day). Yes, this is significant.
The yearly power consumption of an average US household is around 1100 watts. Of course, the instantaneous power consumption could be anywhere from 0 to a large wattage.
Assuming you live in a small apartment, rather than a large house, I’m going to guess that your average yearly power consumption is 700 watts. If that was the case, then here’s how it would work out.
Let’s say you run the space heater for 1/4 of the year (3 months of winter), and during that time, you run it for 1/12 of the day (2 hours per day) on its highest setting (1500 watts). The amount it adds to your yearly average is:
1/4 * 1/12 * 1500 W = 31.25 W
That brings you to 731.25 W yearly, or a 4.5% increase in power consumption. Thus, your electricity bill would increase by 4.5%.
Rough calculation:
High Setting = 1500 w = 1.5 kw.
Two hour a day = 2 x 30 days = 60 hours a month.
Your electric bill will rise = 1.5 KW x 60 Hours = 90 KWH a month.
Low Setting = 900 w = 0.9 kw.
Two hour a day = 2 x 30 days = 60 hours a month.
Your electric bill will rise = 0.9 KW x 60 Hours = 72 KWH a month.
Additional info on follow up to Edgar VSB’s answer (which is very good BTW), is the cost of KWH of electricity in US. The average cost is $0.11 per KWH. Many locations have surcharge for exceeding the base allocated amount and this can be double the average. So a best guess (at $0.22 per KWH) would make that about as high as $20 per month more on your bill, if you use it 2 hours per day.