Should You Use Space Heaters or Central Heat?

Use central heat for the house and save a space heater for one room, for a few hours. A space heater is cheaper only when you’re warming a single small space you’re sitting in. Once you run two or three of them to make up for a system that can’t keep the whole house comfortable, you’re paying more and getting less.

What a Space Heater Really Costs

Almost every plug-in space heater draws about 1,500 watts on high. At typical Louisiana electric rates, that works out to roughly 15 to 20 cents an hour per heater. One heater in a home office on a chilly morning is cheap. Three heaters running all evening through a January cold snap can add a surprising amount to your Entergy or SLEMCO bill, and they still leave hallways and bathrooms cold.

Central heat spreads warmth evenly and is built to run for hours. A heat pump, which is what most Acadiana homes have, moves heat instead of making it, so it typically delivers two to three times more heat per dollar of electricity than a resistance space heater. A gas furnace has its own cost advantage when gas prices are reasonable.

When a Space Heater Makes Sense

• You’re warming one room you’ll be in for a short time, like a bedroom before bed.
• A back room or converted garage never gets enough airflow from the ducts.
• You want to keep the thermostat a few degrees lower overnight and stay cozy in one spot.

Keep them at least three feet from bedding, curtains, and furniture. Plug them straight into the wall (never an extension cord or power strip), and turn them off when you leave the room or go to sleep.

When It’s a Sign of a Bigger Problem

Our winters are short and mild, with a handful of hard freezes along the Gulf Coast. If your central heat can’t handle that, something is off. Common culprits are a heat pump that’s low on refrigerant, a furnace that’s short-cycling (turning on and off every few minutes), leaky ductwork in a hot attic, or a system that was sized wrong from the start.

DIY Fix or Time to Call?

You can handle the easy stuff: change the air filter, open closed vents, and make sure the thermostat is set to Heat. If rooms still stay cold, that’s a job for a licensed tech. A seasonal heating tune-up catches most of these issues before the first cold front. If your system is 15 years old or needs a new repair every winter, it’s worth pricing out heating installation, or locally for Lafayette and Abbeville homes. We usually have a furnace tune-up offer and a system replacement offer running on our specials page, so check there before you book.

Call F & R Air Conditioning at (337) 893-5646 and we’ll tell you whether your system needs a tune-up, a repair, or a replacement.