I'm interested in max cost savings for heating. Why is it that hardly nobody seems to be using kerosene heaters anymore? Is it just because of inconvenience? Would I save a lot, especially if the commodities speculators go crazy again soon and drive up the cost of my heating oil?
I have a fairly small house, live alone and keep the thermostat low all winter. Could I just put a kerosene heater on the cellar's concrete floor and let the heat rise upstairs? The kerosene would be auxiliary to the main oil-fired steam boiler.
Not sure you would save any money. Suspect kerosene costs as much as oil.
Personally I don't want to breathe unvented combustion products even if there are safeguards in place to shut the heater down if it emits carbon monoxide or oxygen level dips. I also suspect you will generate an off smell from kerosene.
My rich/el cheapo neighbors use an electric blanket and let house temp drop to 50 at night. Also have a supplemental wood burner built into home system and gets all the wood he needs from his three acres. Tank of oil probably lasts several years.
thanks for both replies. I was afraid that kerosene prices would be a problem, except I wondered if greater efficiency (no heat goes up the chimney) could be a saving factor. Looks like it's me and my own electric blanket again this year.
So a followup: does it really save much fuel to drop the temp overnight? I'll likely have the thermostat set to 55 all day anyway. If I let the temp drop to
50 overnight, then it can take a long, long time (45 minutes?) just to raise it from 50 to 55 in the morning. I also had kinda figured that long continuous stress on the old boiler might be a bad thing, rather than have it come on for maybe 10 minutes at a time if I keep the thermostat steady.
K1 around here is 3 bucks a gallon. Back when it was half that or even less I did compliment my home heating with a large convection kero heater. But fuel costs prohibit that these days for me. And I used to buy it by the 55 gallon drum. Can't justify the expense now. I tried it last season and lost.
Your furnace is likely thermostatically controlled & you can set that as low as you like. It will shut off rather than continuing to throw off useless heat like a kero heater.
They are a safety hazard and some insurance companies don't want you to use them.
Your house will smell like Kero and be covered in a black film by spring.
They are a major PITA- you need to keep running out and buying kero. There are 2 places that sell kero in my area. One is 6 miles west, the other is 5 miles east. It never fails, that whenever I need kero for my salamander heater, the first one I go to is out of Kero-- so then I go to the other & 1/2 the time it will have some. The other 1/2 of the time I've just wasted a gallon of gas and still can't run the damn heater.
Your best bet to save fuel is to insulate your house, seal up your windows, install storm doors, and turn your thermostat down. Safer, cleaner, easier, and more bag for your buck.
I've got a couple kero heaters for working in my unheated garage when I have to. Would use them in the house only in an emergency. Like a broken furnace when it's below zero, to keep pipes from freezing. K1 is pretty expensive, so it's not cost efficient for home heating, besides the smell, soot, etc. If you buy K1 be careful. Wide variances in price. Think I paid about 15 bucks for 5-gallon jugs at Menards. Other sources wanted 30-40 for the same.
You always save fuel costs by having the heat down. There's no significant "stress" on your boiler by running it for long lengths of time, unless you have a bad component that can overheat.
A good thing to remember about heating is that the bigger the differential in heat from where it's warm to where it's cold, the faster you'll lose heat. Non-linear I think the smart guys say. Seems obvious, but my wife still doesn't get it (-:
It may not use a chimney, but the CO and CO2 combustion products have to go somewhere since they are poisonous. That means, to be safe, you have to have good circulation thru your house and a path for the gases to get to the outside.
A portable kerosene heater is great for places that don't have any other sourct of heat, but the price of fuel isn't competitive with other methods if you have access to gas or electricity.
New oil burners max out at about 85% efficiency. Gas is somewhat better. Cost of heat depends on where you live.
Programmed thermostat might be good for you. There should be data available on percent energy saving for every degree drop in temperature. You will save money.
Wick heaters carbon up, clog and become less efficient as the wick ages. Monitor kerosene heaters ARE popular and burn clean and are vented. Propane is much better for space heating; no wicks to mess with. I'd still go with vented propane though. If you house is air tight, you could die from carbon monoxide posioning with ventless.
For the simple reason that kerosene has become absurdly impractical, economically.
I used to have a kerosene space heater. Worked great. Many friends up in the hills had Alladin kerosene lamps. This was when grade B kerosene was only $1.80 gal. Grade A, only a bit more.
Last time I saw kerosene, it was on sale at the local feed and grain store. It was $8.00 gal!! Who the hell can afford that? A little later, I tried selling a near new 24,000 btu kerosene htr. It cost about $150 new. I couldn't sell it for $30. Ended up tossing it. No place I currently know sells kerosene htrs. Why bother?
Ever use one? I remember when folks used to say "this is great, you can't even smell it (after it burned your sense of smell out) or tell I am using it (and you could write your name on a window and had teary eyes for two hours after you left their house).
Since I've used kerosene heaters on and off for the last 20 years or so, I'll give you the benefit of my experience.
They're good for *temporary* space heating, but with some gotchas:
o Since they emit bad stuff (CO & CO2), only use them in well-ventilated spaces. I wouldn't use it in a small, well-sealed room with all doors and windows closed.
o I would never use one unattended, either when you're not home or while you're sleeping. I only fire mine up when I'm awake and up and about.
o As others have said, kerosene isn't cheap. But the good news is that the small heaters I have use fuel pretty conservatively. I still have most of a 5-gallon can left over from last winter.
o Don't expect them to heat a large room. They're good for sort of "spot" use, like when you're sitting while reading, etc. They can take the chill off a larger room, but not bring it up to room temperature.
o You need to learn to adjust them properly. The only time they smoke, if they're adjusted right, is right after being lit before they get hot enough to turn the catalytic burner red-hot. After they're hot you need to adjust the burner so the flame doesn't go much above the screen on top. Otherwise you'll get smoke coming out.
If properly adjusted there's surprisingly little odor once they're red-hot. They're pretty efficient at fully combusting the fuel.
Kerosene heaters are 100% efficient (no heat goes up the chimney). In my experience, they need annual service, new wick and so on. Might be easier to keep using your oil boiler.
A local service station sells it bulk, and it was about $6.00 a gallon last winter. That's why those once very popular in the 1990's kero heaters are now at garage sales for a couple buxks. No one can afford to feed them anymore. I used to use one in my garage in winter. Now I use propane.
I get a laugh out of people like you. As if we dont all know this stuff by now.
How about this. Everytime I'm told to insulate and save energy I do it.
In the past 10 years I added so much insulation that I only have about
25 square feet left to live in. This house was originally 1800 square feet. I added storm windows and more and more windows. I can no longer see the windows. I added weather stripping to the doors, I cant find the doors anymore. I turned off all lights and used smaller and smaller bulbs, and I can no longer see my dinner when I eat. I turned down my thermostat, from 70 to 60, then 50, then 40, 30, 20, and it would not go any lower, so I just shut off the furnace. Three days later I died from freezing. It took the coroner's office 5 days to cut thru all the insulation to get my body out of the house.
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