Space heaters expense

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This may seem like an inane question -

Does anyone know, in general, how much a space heater costs to operate? We have the oil-filled type. Our guest rooms are in the basement, and it tends to be chilly, so we use them.

I have them on thermostats which work great. However, last night the students staying with us circumvented the thermostat and one of the rooms was 77 degrees this morning (I put a sensor in the room). Last night it was up to 75 degrees so I knocked on their door, checked the thermostat, and explained to them that they needed to not touch the thermostat. Apparently, they did.

This was after they left my brand new bathroom with a half and inch of water on the floor which was soaking into my new walls…

Anyway, what I don’t know is how much it cost me to run that heater all night. It seems like it’s something I just need to get over - we keep our thermostat very low for the house, so maybe it’s ‘just me’. To their defense, they all got out extra blankets and this morning were wearing their coats. So it’s not like they were in shorts and tank tops.

Besides being a bit loud they were nice guests. I would like to review that they should think about staying in commercial properties that can absorb the expense of the extra heating much better. They will probably say that I was very nice but that the rooms were freezing cold!

Thoughts?

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I’d be interested in what you find out! I started hosting last month and gave my guests an oil space heater since they like it warmer than I do, and I’d rather not turn my whole 2000 sq ft house up to 70 degrees Farenheit. Those oil space heaters are pretty safe and efficient (though I had to ask guests explicitly to turn it off when they leave the house because I still worry about fires and I’m a frugal millenial).

I haven’t compared electrical bills from before and after hosting yet, but I intend to, and I’ll report back if I notice any difference. My first guests were running the heater on high 24/7 for three weeks so there may be a big difference!

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We just hosted some folks here in California who had the heater turned up to 78 and 79 night and day. They left today and come to find out they also had a space heater going. I am pretty irked. The last time someone abused the air conditioner my husband put a monitor on the thermostat so we can monitor it. Best just not to know. I dread my energy bill. The crazy thing is they are also airbnb hosts.
Ugh.

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