LESLIE: Now we’ve got Sampat in North Carolina who needs help with a heating question. What can we do for you?
SAMPAT: I have a 2,600 split-foyer house and we have natural gas and electricity for heating purposes.
TOM: OK.
SAMPAT: Mostly, we use natural gas.
TOM: Good.
SAMPAT: Would a quartz infrared heater save us any money?
TOM: I don’t think so. If you’ve got natural-gas heat already, that’s going to be the least expensive per BTU. So if you wanted to save money, what I would suggest you do, Sampat, is to take a look at your energy efficiency in your home and see what could be improved there. For example, take a look up in the attic and tell me if you’ve got 15 to 20 inches of fiberglass insulation. If you don’t, now is a good time to add to that.
SAMPAT: Yeah, we do have good insulation. Very good insulation. But there’s still – the heating bill is running around close to $200 a month in the wintertime.
TOM: Mm-hmm. So, another thing to take a look at is the outlets on the exterior walls – the lights and the outlets and the switches on the exterior walls – and make sure that those have insulation gaskets behind them, because there’s a lot of drafts that get in there.
SAMPAT: Yes.
TOM: And look to all of the areas where you can tighten up the house. That’s going to give you a better return on investment than adding quartz infrared heat, which is very, very expensive to run. Now, the only time that that makes sense is if all the rest of the rooms in the house are turned off, so to speak, and maybe you’ve just got one area that’s a little chilly and you just want to run it for a little bit of time strategically, like in the evening when you’re all gathered around.
But I would never suggest that you use that in lieu of your natural gas-fired, central heating system, because it just wouldn’t make sense.
SAMPAT: OK. Alright, Tom. Very good. Thank you so much.
TOM: Good luck, sir. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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