An individual has made a claim in another guide on the Sunheat heater that running the Sunheat heater 24 hours per day for an entire month would cost less than $25 in electricity. I was amazed and intrigued, so I decided to look into it further. This short guide is the result.

First, I wanted to doublecheck the computations. Good thing I did, since they were wholly and completely inaccurate.

The original cost analysis claimed an energy cost of .0496, or 4.96 cents per kilowatthour (kWh). That is a very low energy cost, and is in fact lower than the average of any state in the country. However, let's accept that cost as accurate, since there are some municipalities with energy costs substantially lower than their state average. But remember that the typical user will pay far higher energy costs than the figure we are using in these computations.

To figure out how much the Sunheat heater would cost per month, we need to know the following things:  the energy cost, how much power the Sunheat consumes, and the amount of usage.

Here are the answers to those intriguing mysteries:

Energy cost: 4.96 centers per kWh, as explained above.

Energy usage: The Sunheat heater runs at 1500 watts, which means it consumes 1.5 kWh (one-thousand five-hundred watts per hour)

Amount of usage: 24 hours per day, 30 days per month equals 720 hours.

Now the real math: The Sunheat runs for 720 hours, and consumes 1.5kw in each one of those hours. Thus, at the end of 1 month, the Sunheat has consumed 1080 kw of power. The cost for each kw is 4.96 cents, which means the electricity cost for the Sunheat heater alone will be $53.57. That is more than double the claimed cost of $24.46.

Are you interested in how much YOU would pay to run the Sunheat heater for 24 hours per day, every day in a month? I certainly was, so I researched the average energy cost for each state, and let my magical calculator go to work.

Here is the cost to operate organized by lowest to highest state average energy cost. In conclusion, don't believe the hype. Imagine you live in a cold environment and need to run a couple of Sunheat heaters to keep warm. You'd owe your house to the power company in no time! When they say the Sunheat pays for itself in the first few months, I think what they mean is you pay more to use it than you actually paid for it in the first few months!

State                          Cost kWh            Sunheat Cost Per Month

Idaho                              5.18                            $55.94

West Virginia                  5.37                             $58.00

Wyoming                        5.44                             $58.75

Kentucky                        5.57                             $60.16

Missouri                         5.87                              $63.40

Nebraska                       6.20                              $66.96

Iowa                              6.54                              $70.63

Indiana                           6.56                             $70.85

Washington                    6.57                              $70.96

Utah                               6.61                              $71.39
 
North Dakota                 6.63                              $71.60
 
Kansas                           6.72                              $72.58
 
Arkansas                        6.84                              $73.87
 
Minnesota                      7.02                              $ 75.82
 
South Dakota                 7.03                             $75.92
 
Virginia                          7.09                              $76.57
 
South Carolina               7.13                              $77.00
 
Oregon                          7.27                              $78.52
 
Tennessee                     7.29                              $78.73
 
Georgia                         7.46                             $80.57
 
Alabama                       7.53                              $81.32
 
New Mexico                7.61                              $82.18

Oklahoma                    7.66                               $82.73
 
Ohio                            7.75                                $83.70
 
Montana                      7.78                               $84.02
 
Colorado                     7.87                                $85.00
 
North Carolina             8.03                               $86.72
 
Mississippi                   8.11                                $87.59
 
Michigan                     8.26                                 $89.21
 
Wisconsin                   8.29                                 $89.53
 
Louisiana                    8.61                                 $92.99
 
Illinois                         8.65                                 $93.42
 
Arizona                       8.94                                 $96.55
 
Pennsylvania               9.05                                  $97.74
 
Nevada                    10.07                                  $108.76
 
Texas                       10.31                                  $111.35
 
Florida                     10.38                                  $112.10
 
Delaware                 11.58                                  $125.06
 
Maryland                 12.03                                  $129.92
 
Vermont                  12.07                                   $130.36
 
California                 12.55                                  $135.54
 
Wash DC                12.68                                   $136.94
 
Maine                      12.87                                  $139.00
 
New Jersey              12.98                                  $140.18
 
Rhode Island            13.23                                   $142.88
 
Alaska                     14.05                                   $151.74
 
New Hampshire       14.09                                   $152.17

Massachusetts         14.98                                   $161.78

New York              15.50                                    $167.40
 
Connecticut             15.72                                    $169.78
 
Hawaii                     23.11                                   $249.59
 
Source for energy costs as of October 2007: "Electric Power Monthly", Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC. Nebraska Energy Office, Lincoln, NE.