I received the
following unsolicited e-mail on November 4, 2009 on the
economic benefits of using a kerosene heater. I
asked if I could use the letter on my web site, and Mr.
Barlow said, "I would be
delighted if you used my letter! I've
been trying to spread kerosene heater usage
anyway." Patrick Barlow
Good evening,
I just wanted to drop you a line thanking you for
keeping kerosene products alive! I happened upon
your page a little more than three years ago while
desperately trying to figure out how I was going to
keep warm for the winter and still have money to pay
the bills. We live in a 1800sq ft house with gas
heat in Louisiana where winters are not
very long, but where cold, humid air has real bite to
it. Heaters here are added more as an
afterthought to a house, and our houses are far less
insulated than our northern neighbors, (you would be
lucky to find a home beyond R-22 here) and heating an
entire house gets pretty extreme financially, well, at
least from my standpoint as I look at each bill with
the number of hours I have to work to pay it's 18hrs a
month to big energy conglomerates is more than I will
ever be willing to slave for!!
Insanity!
Enter kerosene heaters. I now own six heaters in
all now, my original 23btu that I paid full price for
at Lowe's three years ago, another 23k btu and a 10k
btu I got for half price at the end of the heating
season at Lowe's, two Kero-Sun Radiant 10 (my favorite
by far) and this year I picked up a Corona SX-2E for
under a bill on eBay since you gave them such a glowing
review (this "bargain" came to my door as a black,
sooty mess, but it shines like new now!)
Three years ago, we had just moved in to this house and had no idea
what bills would be like, and we ran the heater for the first time
from the mid December to mid January - $314 gas bill!!!! And
that was at a chilly 65F! I've never run that heater
again! Figuring that we reside in rooms most of
the time and not the entire house, I started with one
kerosene heater and two electric heaters for most of
that winter. We noticed that A) electric heaters
don't really put off that much heat, B) they burn
through electricity as if it were they're passion, and
C) that kerosene heaters work astoundingly well, have
"big" room warming heat and they won't burn the house
down as we were often told. As soon as Lowe's
clearance rack popped up with kerosene heaters, I
bought the other two Dyna-Glo models I still have and
back-up wicks for half off as well. That first
year was certainly the most "expensive" year for my
future kerosene heating days; 3 heaters, 3 wicks and 4
containers did add up to about $270 (still less than
one months use of the gas heater) and approx 15gal
kerosene (two big heaters cost a lot more in fuel
costs) at about $45 and that did last the rest of our
winter. The next year I got my Kero-Sun Radiant
10's and used them as my main heat source for all of
the winter, while utilizing the larger 23k units as
quick room heaters, mostly in the mornings. From
Dec-Apr we spent, $100 on kerosene - price of kerosene
having gone up a dollar per gallon from the last year
to $4 - and kept the house roasty-toasty all winter
long! My Kero-Sun Radiant 10's are able to burn
well under the rated 9600btu, have an extra large tank
that will burn for over 24hrs on high and burn
perfectly and without smell (aside from start-up which
is minimal). The Kero-Sun's set me back $120 for
both.
Doing the math. In each year, I've been able to
come out WAY ahead cash wise from using these
heaters. The first year, I spent $315 on three
heaters, extra wicks, four containers and kerosene for
the entire winter (still using electric space heaters
in two rooms), compared to running the heater all
winter at $300 each month or $1500 for the
winter - saving $885 as we did use the heater the first
month, but the money saved in ONE month paid for ALL my
kerosene appliances, maintenance, fuel and fuel storage
- ONE MONTH PAYOFF!! To make it even sweeter,
last year I bought two smaller radiant heaters and 25
gal of kerosene for $220 savings year two,
$1280!! That's 75hrs at $17hr!! My two new
to me heaters AND fuel costs were paid for before the
end of the first heating bill! This is very
serious money for those of us not belonging to the
upper 1%. That amount of savings is and entire
house note, taxes, insurance and all!
Had it not been for these heaters, we would have been
all huddled around the wood stove in the living room
all winter long. My wood stove is awesome, it
heats the front of the house overly well, but the back
half is where the rooms are, and like anyone else,
where we spend the most time.
It is because of you that I even became interested in
kerosene appliances, for which I have come to love so
much. I have become amazed at how well kerosene
works for not only room heat, but for cooking stoves
and circular wick lamps as well. I am also
saddened by how well my 120 year old lamps work and
look, and have to realize that America will never again
build anything that is made to last 1/10 as long.
My Kero-Sun heaters and stoves are now about 35 years
old - that's 3 years older than myself! - and they look
and work perfectly, even through the night!
Thank you again,
Patrick Barlow
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