I finally found out why my utility bill was so high last winter

I spent $200 on a fancy space heater from Home Depot thinking it would save me money. Turns out plugging it into a cheap extension cord made it run twice as long to heat the room. My electric bill actually went up by $45 that month. Didn't realize the cord was too long and thin for the heater's draw until an electrician neighbor pointed it out. Has anyone else wasted money on a heater just to have it backfire like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnflores3d ago

Did that electrician neighbor actually measure the voltage drop at the heater itself, or was he just guessing based on the cord length and gauge? Temperature loss from an undersized cord usually slows down the heater but doesn't double its runtime unless the draw is way out of spec. Seems like you might want to test the actual voltage at the outlet and at the heater to see exactly how much power you're losing through that extension cord.

simonl113d ago

Read an article from a home inspection site that said voltage drop under 5% usually won't cause big issues, but once you hit 8% or more, motors and heaters start struggling hard. Your neighbor probably had a good hunch though, because an undersized cord can easily drop 10-12 volts on a 1500 watt heater if it's running 50 feet or more. I'd grab a cheap multimeter and test the voltage at the heater while it's running, then compare it to the wall outlet. That's the only way to know for sure if the cord is the problem.

henry6043d ago

Wait, you actually bought a 50 footer for a space heater?