Does anyone use electric baseboard heat for their home?

[Buckeye5]

Since the cost of propane is at an all time high, Dh and I were talking about baseboard heating for your home. You use no furnance and it is supposed to be economical because you use a thermostat in each room. We do have central air so we would need to keep it, but I am just curious if anyone uses this type of heating and what the cost is and if you like it?

[fuzzybunny]

I've lived in may apartments with this sort of heating system. The problem is that you can not put anything against it... I believe within 12 inches. If you are dealing with a small space, like a bedroom I severly limits what furniture you can have in the room and what you can do with said furniture.

I did go to one person's house where they were installed up near the ceiling and she had ceiling fans... that seems a workable option to me. Either way, I would look very carefully at your space and see if you can afford to give up a good section of wall and floor space before you decide.

Also how do electric space heaters compair to electric baseboard? If they are fairly close in cost to run I would go with the space heaters. They have some really great radiant ones for big spaces these days and there would be no wiring/installation costs plus you could remove and store them during the summer or if propane gets cheaper than electricity again.

Christine

Christine

[Darlene]

Whenever I think of electric heat I think $$$$$$.

[YankeeMom]

Originally Posted by Darlene

Whenever I think of electric heat I think $$$$$$.

Same here. And I think cold. Every place we have had that had baseboard heat (there have been three apartments) they have been cold!! Unless you have tiny rooms (then there's the space issue mentioned above) or you sit right on top of the baseboards you freeze your buns off!

[Grayce]

We had electric baseboards in 2 apartments we have lived in. They were super expensive to run. This is more than 11 years ago we sometimes had $300 bills in the wintertime. These were small 2 bed apartments. I now have a 4 bedroom house and hydro rates have risen a lot in the past 11 years and my bills run about $120. I am sure that propane would still be much cheaper than electric baseboard heaters.

[onencgirl]

I have a heat pump. I'm not too crazy about it, I'm always chilly but have learned to put a sweater and socks on.... I've had baseboard heating in the past and it was expensive.

[JustJoy]

I'm not a fan of baseboard heat. I've had it in the past in 2 different apts. and had nothing but problems with it.

[pita1213]

we had baseboard heat that ran off the oil tank. they really sucked on the oil and didn't warm the house very well except in the smaller bedrooms. i can't imagine electric ones being much better. we had to use a couple of electric heaters a few nights because the baseboard heaters weren't warming the house, but if we turned up the thermostat, we'd run out of oil before the next fill up. we were in CT at the time.

[chumlyb]

I had a condominium a few years ago with electric baseboard heat. I was *very* happy with it. Each room had a thermostat so I had as many heating zones as I had rooms. It was very economical for me. I guess a couple of factors that were different are that I had neighbors on a number of sides (above, below, and on two of the four sides) and that I lived alone so if I wasn't in a room I didn't have to heat it. I also am a big fan of electric heat because it is the cleanest heat source - no fumes to worry about.

[mikandmari]

I had a friend with a town house with electric baseboard heat. As soon as the heater shut off the house immediately felt cold (much like an electric heater you plop in the middle of the floor).

I have a gas heater with water filled radiators. I love radiant heat and don't understand why it ever stop being used by builders. The radiators get warm and stay warm... and so does the room!

Buckeye5, what kind of heat do you currently have?

[Buckeye5]

EXPENSIVE Propane, the cost has gone up by the 5 folds.

[banana]

When we built our house in the Poconos 11 years ago it had those electric heaters. All I can say is my first bill was $600 for one month and that was 11 years ago!!!! We converted to oil the next spring.