How much does my little cube heater cost to use per hour?

[astro]

Let’s say it’s rated to 1500 watts and my current electric rate is 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Is it approximately 15 cents per hour?

[LSLGuy]

Correct, IF it is actually energized the whole hour. Most heaters have some sort of thermostat & the heating coils are not running full blast the whole time. So 15 cents/hour would be pretty much the upper limit on cost.

[Q.E.D]

@astro

Is it approximately 15 cents per hour?

Yep.

[Crafter_Man]

It doesn’t sound like much. Until you add it up. If you have it on for 8 hours per day, it’s over $400/year. If you have it on for 24 hours per day, it’s over $1300/year.

[RandomLetterAssortment]

Of course, who would run a space heater year round? Even 8 hours a day would seem a bit much, unless you do something silly like run it while you are sleeping.

[Carnac_the_Magnificent]

@Crafter_Man

It doesn’t sound like much. Until you add it up. If you have it on for 8 hours per day, it’s over $400/year. If you have it on for 24 hours per day, it’s over $1300/year.

Operating Astro’s space heater all “year” on Pluto–where a year is 248.6 Earth years long–would result in an even higher bill.

Note: Pluto is not a planet.

[jjimm]

Using UK production figures, that heater would also cause the emission of just over 600g of CO[sub]2[/sub] per hour. The figure might be lower in the US due to greater use of nuclear power (?).

[Musicat]

@jjimm

Using UK production figures, that heater would also cause the emission of just over 600g of CO[sub]2[/sub] per hour. The figure might be lower in the US due to greater use of nuclear power (?).

Try France for nukes. Says MSN:

Today, France gets nearly 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power while the United States is far down the list at 20 percent.

http://www.nei.org/doc.asp?catnum=2&catid=106

Countries generating the largest percentage of their electricity in 2005 from nuclear energy were: France, 78.5 percent; Lithuania, 69.6 percent; Slovakia, 56.1 percent; Belgium 55.6 percent; Ukraine, 48.5 percent; Sweden, 46.7 percent; Republic of Korea, 44.7 percent; Bulgaria, 44.1 percent; Slovenia, 42.4 percent; Hungary, 37.2 percent; and Finland, 32.9 percent.