$70 Home Depot baseboard heaters....

[Gremlinguy]

Pretty new here, first post other than my intro.
But I just wanted to do a quick review of some heaters I just installed.
About 2 weeks ago I insulated and sheeted (with osb) my 20x20 detached garage and installed 2 220 baseboard heaters I bought from Home Depot...
http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Ma...1#.UKA_VVL4KtY
And I am very impressed!! Today here in CO it was about 20-25 degrees and I barley had them on above low and I was able to keep the garage a very comfortable 60 degrees all day.
Very quiet too.
This was my first time to really use them so I checked them throughout the day and I really think they were only actually running only about half of the day or so.
Why didn't I do this years ago? Goodbye cold, hello winter progress!!

[Steve91T]

Good work. I'm interested in hearing how your electric bill is effected. I've heard that they are expensive to operate, but then again, I've never had first hand experiences.

[Gremlinguy]

I am interested too. I am hoping that the fact there not turned up high at all and seem to be barley running will help that out.

[jerseywild]

We just removed four electric baseboard heaters from the Boy Scout cabin here. The first electric bill went a few hundred when using the heaters.

[gatchel]

2500 watt units. depending on your rate...at $0.15 per kWh would cost about $0.38 per hour that the element is actually on at full power.

I have a 15000 watt heater in my garage, about $2.25 per hour if running at full power.


Electric gets expensive fast if you aren't careful. In the colder days I use a propane turbo heater to take the chill off and the electric to maintain temp.

[JTG]

I'm glad you were able to get them to work. I pulled 2 electric baseboard heaters out of my finished basement because I didn't need them (it was comfortable without them) and put one in the garage this fall. I don't think it helped at all. It was a 110 unit and at least 15 years old so that may have had something to do with it.

Good luck and report back about your bill.

[DPelletier]

All electric resistance heaters are virtually 100 percent efficient so basically a watt is a watt is a watt. The first Law of Thermodynamics and all that...

Dave

[Highbeam]

Also, the baseboard heaters I'm familiar with are either on or off, they don't modulate. So whenever the stat is calling for heat, they consume the wattage on the tag.

Nothing wrong with electric heat. I tend to prefer the wall heaters with blowers since they don't take up floor space where water and fumes may splash.

In many areas, like mine, electric heat from baseboards or anything really is cheaper than the same btu from propane when using normal 80-90% efficient propane burners.

[nosnerd]

here in eastern ontario rates are tierd and just went up last month...


off peak: 6.3 c/kw

mid peak:9.9 c/kw

peak:11.8 c/kw

off peak 7pm - 7am and weekends friday 7pm to monday 7am.also;holidays are off peak.

[theoldwizard1]

Originally Posted by Gremlinguy

And I am very impressed!! Today here in CO it was about 20-25 degrees and I barley had them on above low and I was able to keep the garage a very comfortable 60 degrees all day.
Very quiet too.
This was my first time to really use them so I checked them throughout the day and I really think they were only actually running only about half of the day or so.

Let us know how much your electric bill goes up.

[Rickcnc]

Originally Posted by nosnerd

here in eastern ontario rates are tierd and just went up last month...


off peak: 6.3 c/kw

mid peak:9.9 c/kw

peak:11.8 c/kw

off peak 7pm - 7am and weekends friday 7pm to monday 7am.also;holidays are off peak.

Looking at my lasts month bill from Hydro One it averaged out to 16.6 cents per KWH

Don't forget about Delivery charges, regulatory charges, debt Retirement charge , HST.. and look at that we get a a 10% credit for applicable electricity charges and taxes (Ontario Clean Energy Benefit)

I took what Paid 169.44 divided by Adjusted KWH used 1018 = 16.6 cents

[Highbeam]

Agreed. When I say we pay 10 cents per hour that is the kwh divided by the total bill. Our per kwh rate is like 6 cents before they add all the other crap that IS part of the cost of power.

[luvit]

Originally Posted by Highbeam

Agreed. When I say we pay 10 cents per hour that is the kwh divided by the total bill. Our per kwh rate is like 6 cents before they add all the other crap that IS part of the cost of power.

yeah. some people advertise 5-6 cents per kwh..
it's all in perspective.. like mpg.

Gremlinguy.. how low do you turn it down when you're away from the garage?
I would aim for 40° F, if you think it'll come-up to temp quickly in CO.
I did read you recently insulated and sheeted the garage... but you may need to add a 3rd party thermostat to control it precisely.
I've seen new thermostats for electric baseboards sell for $15 at HD.

I keep mine at 50° F overnight, hoping to keep some metal warm enough for paint... whenever i find some time to jump on it.

You'll really want to keep electric heat low when you are away.
.

[Gremlinguy]

Now that it is May I feel i can tell you how the heaters did throughout the winter here in CO......
GREAT!
They seemed to work great, I left one set real low and the garage stayed about 49 degrees day or night. When I went into the garage to get some work done I turned the other one on just about as high as the other (still very low). Got the garage to about 60 degrees in about 30 minutes. Would work like that all day and turn the one off when I went back inside.
My bill raised about $30 a month on average.
I am very happy with them.

[Highbeam]

Good for you. Your heating system is cheap, quiet, safe, small, easy to install, and cost effective. That 30$ increase that you saw would have been a big deal back in the old days when oil/gas was 50 cents per gallon but now that the alternative fuels have gotten so expensive, electric can be a bargain again.

[kamesama980]

Wow, wish the house I rent was that cheap...electric baseboard heat's 2x as expensive to heat in the winter as central AC in the summer. Summer bills in the low hundreds. winter bill's in the mid-upper 200s. doesn't even get all that cold (most of the winter doesn't get much below freezing)