Cheap heating in the winter

Having lived in my car for some period of time, the cost to heat spaces is always a major factor.

I have found a new method, which might be preferred in many cases. But let me discuss my old heating ways.

Living in a car, running the engine isnt the most efficient, and can be dangerous.  There then becomes major limitations based on your battery source.

Purchasing a small jackery style battery bank, I found that electric blankets and small ceramic heaters 250w or below to be the best budget option for living in a car.  I found a speed switch very useful, as it could cut the heaters power in half and still have it pump out heat.

The new method is heating with reptile heaters.  Heating water is very efficient, but difficult in a home environment, but having a heated water tank under a living area would provide great warmth, and large aquarium heaters take very little watts in comparison to ceramic heaters which are often 1500watts.

The new method is using ceramic reptile heaters.  These emit no light, and so I figured they could be very efficient with energy.  Reading reviews, people report that it keeps a small space much warmer.  There are all different wattage of ceramic reptile heaters, but I chose a 150w pair and a 75w pair.

So far I have only gotten the 150w pair to test, but they get quite hot. My idea is to suspend them and have a fan blow across them.

My temperature sensors seem to show it working well, but I need a much longer test to know for sure.

I just know a 1500w heater is expensive, and 300w will cost five times as less.  It could be even more efficient, as the 1500w heaters often underwhelm me.

3.5 hours from 70 degrees to 84 degrees.

These are suspended directly over my sleeping area.

Toasty nights incoming.

Interesting approach. I look forward to your reports.

How do you recharge the battery bank? That's a lot of energy.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Interesting approach. I look forward to your reports.

How do you recharge the battery bank? That's a lot of energy.

Last night was a huge success.

The two heat bulbs raised the temperature to 85 in my bedroom, and so I cut one off. One single 150w bulb kept my room 75 with the heat alreasy in my room.

Charging a battery bank can be done many places, but the key is making it through the night. I would charge at a library or mcD, or anywhere I could find.

It was the warmest night I have enjoyed in a while.


These ceramic heat bulbs were not the first attempt at heating this year, as I have purchased a small butane heater to help with warmth.

The Kovea cupid heater runs about fix or six hours on a butane can that costs 2.20. This is a very efficient heating system, as below and behind the unit does not heat up as expected.

Hereat, I decided to wash my electric blankets, and the kovea cupid helped me dry the blankets efficiently. One load in a dryer would cost about two bucks, and that gives me six hours of heat for drying laundry.

I also am considering how to hook up reptile heat lamp bulbs for drying laundry.

I have collected a heat powered stove fan to the front of the kovea cupid, and it gives a little bit of air movement to help with drying clothes.  The fan spins very easily with the heat from the the cupid

Wanted to expand upon this, because the initial setup seems not too safe.  These heat lamps get a bit too hot to just be suspended starught down.

There is too much possibility of the heat damaging the socket and causing an issue.  My solution is to use a light clamp and reflector so that it's more sideways.

Thid heat seems very efficient. I had two above me and a heated blanket below.  Together, I think it heated my body too much.  In the morning it felt as though an infection in my stomach had been enflamed.  I have been struggling with candida, and I feel this was symptoms of that.

So it works, but maybe too well for my own case.

After several days in bed, I am much better.

William Wallace wrote:Wanted to expand upon this, because the initial setup seems not too safe.  These heat lamps get a bit too hot to just be suspended starught down.

There is too much possibility of the heat damaging the socket and causing an issue.  My solution is to use a light clamp and reflector so that it's more sideways.

It's fine for a closely monitored test, but you are right to be concerned about melting plastic sockets. Ceramic sockets are always used for fixtures containing heat bulbs.