Beat the Cold With an Electric Radiator

      It got down to 14 degrees in northern New Jersey over the weekend, and the wind was howling through the trees—not a recipe for a toasty warm house when we keep the thermostat at 62 degrees. But upstairs in the spare bedroom where our main computer is located I was snug because of the new oil-filled electric space heater we bought for less than $60 at Home Depot.

      Also, it didn't cost an arm and a leg to use the heater. Used sparingly, the heater cost us about 5.5 cents for each hour it was in use. Used injudiciously, that cost can go much higher!

      I love the winter, but the cold makes it really difficult to work at a keyboard. The relative inactivity makes my body feel like it's an icicle in short order. The choice before me was to keep the whole house at a higher temperature, a waste when our daughter is in school and my husband is at the office, or to seek out a supplemental heat source.

      We did some not-very-scientific research about ways to heat a room. One choice was an electric resistance heater. You turn it on and some heating elements begin to glow similar to the way an electric stove works. I didn't like the idea because it seemed that as soon as you turned the unit off, it stopped generating heat.