Should I leave my heater on 24/7 ?

[TSN79]

I've got an electric heater in my appartment. It's on a timer that turns it on at 1200 and off at 2300. While on it's controlled by a thermostat. My question is this; is it more economical for me to leave it on 24/7 instead of what I'm currently doing, the theory being that whatever I save during off-hours is lost to the need to re-heat the appartment when the heater is turned on again?

 

[stewartcs]

The most economical route would be to ensure that the apartment is well insulated. If it is insulated really well it will retain the heat better thus requiring less "re-heating", hence less energy.

But to answer your question, it seems to me that turning it off until needed (i.e. until you are home and want to be warm) would be more economical. I can't imagine it would take a lot of time to warm a normal size apartment even with poor insulation. But that will depend on your heating unit's size and the size of your apartment.

Of course if you have pets or some other reason to keep it warm while you are not there you might want to leave it on while you are gone.

 

[TSN79]

Excellent! Thx for answering :) The heater is 2 kW and the apartment is 93 m2 total. It's a condo from 1972, mainly concrete. And it's the top floor. Outside it might get -15 C during the winter. Don't know if that tells you anything usefull. Thx again!

 

[russ_watters]

2 kW is not a lot of heat for that size apartment and that temperature.