As you begin recovering from the holidays and look ahead into January you may be feeling the cold of winter and the shock from your latest home heating system bill. Of course you expected it to be a little higher than normal because you had holiday visitors and were baking holiday goodies, but by the looks of your bill you were running the heat more than you thought. Either that or your home heating system is incredibly inefficient. Well, winter isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and along with your energy bill you have your holiday shopping bills to pay too. What can you do to save some money the next couple of months and still stay warm? Read the article below to learn if using a space heater will help you.

Posted by: Kiera Butler, Mother Jones

Do Space Heaters Save Money and Energy?

The short answer is that it depends on how much of your house you're heating. In general, if you only need one or two rooms to be warm, space heaters will use less energy than central heat. (Unless your central heating happens to be wildly efficient: Geothermal users, I'm looking at you). "But in terms of energy per heat output, small space heaters will rarely ever be as efficient as a central heating system," says Tom Simchak, a senior policy-research associate at the Alliance to Save Energy. "There would be few situations where putting space heaters in every room and turning them all on would be more efficient than a properly-operating and relatively modern central system."

If you do opt for a space heater, make sure to get the right kind. If you're just looking to heat part of a room, choose a radiant heater, which emits infrared radiation that heats up whatever is closest to the unit (i.e., you, your desk, etc.). If you want to heat up the whole room, opt for a convection heater, which warms up the air, suggests the US Department of Energy. 

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In general, space heaters probably aren’t your answer. Not only do they pose the risk of home electrical fires, but they also end up sucking up more energy than they save. Instead, start saving money on your home heating system bill by conducting an energy audit in your home and doing what you can to patch up the areas where your home is losing significant heat. You also want to make sure you are properly maintaining your heating system to keep it running efficiently. If you think your home heating system is ready for an upgrade, then it may be time to contact a heating system service company for an evaluation. Learn more by contacting Experts In Your Home today!

Download our free checklist below to make sure you're performing the proper maintenance on your heating system.