It depends on where you live because:
1) Electricity rates vary dramatically across the continental US. Costs per kWH may be as low as 2 cents (Central Washington State) or has high as14 cents (New York City).
2) If your climate is moderate, an electric heat pump may be the lowest cost option as the primary source for heating and cooling.
Your local utility company or heating and air conditioning specialist should have information that will help you decide what is the best option to heat and cool your house.
-jtd
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:04 am
it depends on a lot of factors
is the place where your electricity generated a natural gas fired power station?
what is the price of natural gas (it fluctuates)
my last house was poorly insulated and had a natural gas heater sso I paid alot for the electricity to run the heater and paid alot for the gas to fire it
my new house is all electric and twice the size (also better insulated) and it costs me half as much to heat it
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March 2nd, 2010 at 10:12 am
Normally? NO! Electricity is inherently inefficient as a heat source!
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HVAC tech for 35+ years.
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Yes! A heat pump saves the most money!
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My job!!!
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:19 am
Normally no, except since the price of natural gas/propane are increasing, it might be in areas where there is a supply of electricity generated by non-fossil fuels (hydroelectric, nuclear)
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March 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
It goes both ways but usually electricity is more expensive. In most areas, the price of electricity is tied to the price of oil and gas. If oil prices go up, so does electricity. If your area is served by nuclear power, then electricity is somewhat independent of oil, and might be cheaper.
You can try http://www.energyshop.com/es/homes/default.cfm
which gives you gas and electric prices in your area. It did not work for me in Wisconsin, but it might work for you.
If the link above does not work for you, try this link http://www.duke-energy.com/ohio/savings/heating-costs.asp to see how you calculate and compare costs for your area.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 12:50 pm
No. In order to generate electricity, over half of the energy in fossil fuels is wasted. The result is that you get less heat in your home out of the same amount of CO2 generated if you use electric heating than gas.
Having said that, many for-profit utilities in the past used to give incentives for more energy use (the more you use, the more they sell and that is good for the bottom line). The people who bought into those contracts now see the utility ratchet up the price for the same electricity they gave away for cheap in the past as FF become more expensive and the carbon tax becomes politically inevitable.
And since the electricity grid will become a fundamental tool to energy independence in the US, be prepared to pay real-world prices for your electricity in the future. With those you will never be able to break even or come even close to breaking even.
Just my two cents.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Per unit cost of electricity is higher than natural gas. This is because generating cost of electricity is much more than the cost of processing of natural gas.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 1:23 pm
It depends on where you live because:
1) Electricity rates vary dramatically across the continental US. Costs per kWH may be as low as 2 cents (Central Washington State) or has high as14 cents (New York City).
2) If your climate is moderate, an electric heat pump may be the lowest cost option as the primary source for heating and cooling.
Your local utility company or heating and air conditioning specialist should have information that will help you decide what is the best option to heat and cool your house.
-jtd
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March 2nd, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Electricity will always cost more than natural gas when used to heat a home.
It has to, because many of the new gas turbine fired electric generating plants use natural gas to make the electricity in the first place, so #1 you must pay for the natural gas (or it’s equal in coal, etc.) used to make the electricity that you are going to heat your home with, and #2 you must then pay for the electricity on top of that.
1 Therm of gas = 29.31 KWH
1 Therm of gas costs me $1.086 (from my gas bill)
1 KWH of electricity costs me $.0852 (from my electric bill)
If I use 100 Therms per month to heat my house it would cost me 100*$1.086 = $108.60 to heat with gas
100 Therms*29.31KWH = 2931 KWH*$0.0852 = $249.70 to heat with electricity
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