Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wings]

Last winter my gas bill went from around 9,000 won a month to around 190,000. This was with the ondol on a fairly low setting, which never actually made me warm, just less cold. I want to get a space heater this year, but I'm wondering just how high my electric bill will go, and also where I should get one and what kind I should buy.

Should I go to high mart or a similar store, or is the quality the same as buying one in a little shop?

There are fan shaped ones and square ones, what is the difference?

How much does it cost to run?

Any other advice?

Cheers!

[Draz]

I'm testing this out right now. I thought ondol sounded like it would be good (heated floors!) until I saw my bill in March.

It's the same space heater no matter where you buy it.

There are two kinds of space heaters, radiant and convection. Google will tell you all about them.

[DavePuff]

[Dodgy Al]

Slightly off-topic, but not much:

Does anyone have a timer on their heating panel? I don't want the heating to run all night, but would love for the ondol to kick in around 6am so I don't have to roll out of bed and be instantly freezing my nads off. Any ideas?

[afsjesse]

I survived last winter with a 15k won space heater from Top Mart. My electric bill went up about 20k per month, that's about 5-7 hours a day that it was on. Gas bill was very low. If it's on all day/night, I imagine it would go up perhaps 50-80k.... anyway you look at it, it's cheaper! and better INOP

[Draz]

Gas heating is more expensive when you leave it on all day (you have to, it takes forever to warm up) and have to heat the entire apartment and not just the room you are in.

[eamo]

A large, old, draughty 'Villa' apartment with badly fitted windows (that would be all of them!) is going to need a lot of gas to keep it warm. You might be better looking at other options like a space heater in just one room or something.......

.....But a modern apartment or 'officetel' with good windows should be much cheaper to heat with ondol than a space heater.

[nolegirl]

Do they sell heated blankets in Korea and if so how much?

[blade]

[blade]

[cruisemonkey]

Two winters ago I experimented and tried an electric ceramic heater instead of my oil-fired ondol. The results were six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other - what I saved on oil, I spent on electricty.

However, since then, the price of oil has risen more than that of electricty...

[sojourner1]

I had an ondol in a shoebox apartment last Winter cost in excess of 100,000 a month in November and December that didn't keep me warm at all though the land lady was biling me and controlling my ondol so it's not a fair judging of how effiencient your own ondol on your own meter really might be. She was the same one who turned off my hot water when I'd get home each night and then tried to demand more money the last day I was in there. I got mad and yelled at the greedy self centered bich for causing such troubles. I had an electric space heater which I used to sleep with and it costed another 75,000 to 125,000 to use it sparingly.

The gas cooking range seems to be the most efficient heater as gas is super cheap and very very hot with blue fire. Gas ranges tend to be many more times efficient than electric heating. Of course you need a minimal amount of some sort of heat while at work and on vacation so the damned pipes don't freeze and break.

[kimbabworld]

One of my co-workers used 2 of them in his apartment thinking he would save money but when he got his bill he had used so much energy that he was charged an extra fee. I guess there is a limit on how much energy you use and if you go over it, you get fined in a sense.

[Draz]

[kimbabworld]

No, I used my ondol freely and my bill was 248,000 won and his was a bit higher.