Homeowners can be excused for being confused.

When Maine reeled from the circa 1973 and 1980 energy crises, the Public Utilities Commission urged people to convert from electric to another form of heating. The same discussion arose this winter, leaving people to wonder what cost-effective alternatives there are to electric heat.

Vented room heaters are one alternative. Monitor Products Inc. manufactures two such heaters that burn kerosene. Although this fuel costs more than heating oil, the heaters supposedly burn kerosene more efficiently than a furnace does No. 2 oil. That’s why a Monitor heater requires no chimney; the heater leaves little residue.

According to literature published by MPI, using a Monitor 41 (the largest unit) to heat a Northeastern home measuring 1,800-2,200 square feet would cost $426 for the winter, based on February 1992 heating costs. Natural gas would cost $696 to heat that same house, while fuel oil would run about $900 for the heating season.

Using electricity to heat this hypothetical house would cost $1,957. Just be converting to the Monitor 41, the homeowner would save about $1,500. If the house were located in Maine (there is a temperature difference between here and northeastern states located beyond the Piscataqua River), the savings could possibly be greater.

The smaller MPI heater, the Monitor 22, uses kerosene stored either in an internal tank or a separate tank. The Monitor 41, which produces about twice as much heat per hour, requires a separate fuel tank. There are pumping systems that can be purchased to move the fuel from the tank to the heater.

Both heaters are permanently installed, using a pipe-within-a-pipe system that draws exterior air into the sealed combustion chamber and exhausts the combustion gases to the outdoors. A fan blows room-drawn air across a heat exchanger located adjacent to the combustion chamber.

— By Brian Swartz