Electric Heaters

I guess this would be directed to people that know electronic power consumption. My parents use oil heat to heat there home in the winter and with oil prices being a rip off I'm wondering if it might actually be cheaper for them to use electric heaters. I'm talking about the more advanced heaters that tend to use less power and have all the safety features. There home is small and I believe it could be heated by 3 electric heaters easily.

Ones like this:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...=10000003+90401&marketID=401&locStoreNum=8125

They seem to pay a lot in oil bills every winter and this winter I'm sure it will be even worse. Anyone have an idea if these new kinds of heaters are the way to go? Will the electricity bills be cheaper than the oil ones?

It depends. If your parents live in a state where electricity is still regulated, it may be as cheap as 5 cents a KWH. However many states have deregulated their electric utilities and prices have skyrocketed. Here in Texas, the price hovers around 12 cents a KWH.

So find out the KWH rate for your parents and figure out the KWH usage for an electric heater like that Lasko. Then do the math.

Another thing you could do is find a local IBEW member electrician or go to your local electric company and ask them yourself. They have probably done studies on this sort of thing and can give you an idea of cost based on the size of your home, insolation, etc. But, at the least they should be able to tell you immediately if it would be cheaper or not.