Is it more cost effective to heat the whole house with gas heat or use electric space heaters?

[Red Squirrel]

Oh I'd love a wood stove. My house layout is just not practical though, no good place to put one other than the basement. If ever I build a house I want to incorporate that in. I'd still have forced air but wood would be nice as supplementary heat too especially for those January and February days where the furnace can't quite keep up.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Electric heaters are virtually 100% efficient. The electricity all goes to heat. Arguments can be made about the value. In most places, gas is cheaper to buy, but for efficiency, electricity will win.

While true, I can see why some might have trouble seeing it. The important thing to remember is that we are comparing your billed costs for electricity and gas which are based on your consumption as measured at your meters. The measured electricity consumption resulting from the use of your electric heater is indeed virtually 100% efficient. On the other hand, the measured gas consumption must be converted into (usable) heat through a furnace that is somewhere between 60% to 95% efficient.

What this analysis doesn't capture is the efficiency of generating the electricity being delivered to you. This can become a confusing discussion when considering all the different sources (e.g. solar, wind, nuclear, fossil fuels). For "apples to apples" let's just consider gas-fired generation. Its efficiency is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% to 60%. Looking at it this way, an argument can be made that a gas furnace is more efficient than an electric heater fed using gas-fired generation in the sense that the former uses less gas than the latter.

The same applies to any heating applications, including water heaters, ovens, and cloths dryers.

The thing you have to remember with electric heat is that even though it's 100% efficient, you are also in essence paying for all the transmission loss on the wires between the power plant and you... and that's a very large number.

No, not really. Transmission and distribution losses are in the range of 5%.

 

[rchunter]

Yeah burning wood is nice. I like harvesting it also. I could buy a wood splitter but I just like splitting it by hand with splitting axe, and it keeps me sort of in shape. I try and keep about 6 cords of wood on hand just in case.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow are gas power plants really that inefficient? I would have figured they would be closer to like 98% efficient now days due to larger scale and better tech and so on. Wonder what is the efficiency of a household natural gas generator. It's crossed my mind to go off grid (for electricity) and have one just to top up batteries. I had calculated it real quick and it turned out it would be cheaper, but I was not accounting for maintenance and so on. The issue would be noise complaints though and fact that in some places it's actually illegal to be off grid. I never actually informed myself on if it would be where I am.

 

[sdifox]

While I have no doubt at all that natural gas is far cheaper, that's simply not true. The meter is mounted on the house, not at power plant.

you have never seen an electric bill have you...

 

[crashtech]

Electric heaters are going to be more environmentally friendly...

Would this not presume that environmentally friendly means were used to generate the electricity? That might not be the case in areas that get a high percentage of their electricity from the burning of coal. Other areas get a large amount of electricity from burning natural gas, and probably do so with cleaner and more efficient combustion than the average residential furnace, but there are large conversion losses in going from heat to electricity and then transmission losses that more than negate that advantage. So unless it can be ascertained that most or all of the power used for home heating was coming from renewables, natural gas heat is likely the least of evils as far as home heating is concerned.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Would this not presume that environmentally friendly means were used to generate the electricity? That might not be the case in areas that get a high percentage of their electricity from the burning of coal. Other areas get a large amount of electricity from burning natural gas, and probably do so with cleaner and more efficient combustion than the average residential furnace, but there are large conversion losses in going from heat to electricity and then transmission losses that more than negate that advantage. So unless it can be ascertained that most or all of the power used for home heating was coming from renewables, natural gas heat is likely the least of evils as far as home heating is concerned.

Yeah this is presuming that we're talking about countries that are in the 2000's and no longer use coal and instead something cleaner like hydro electric. Of course each method will have it's level of impact, even hydro electric does affect fish and such.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I plan to invent the bitcoin-mining electric hot water heater / tank.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If hydro prices were not so crazy here I would basically just build a whole bunch of bitcoin mining rigs to heat the house lol.

 

[dullard]

This is going to be really complex, so be warned.

1) To heat the whole house, your whole house heating system is the most cost effective (by far).
2) To heat just one space at a time (and you set up the room so just that one space is being heated), a space heater is the most cost effective.

 

[JEDI]

We can use math to find the amount of electricity (in kilowatt hours) needed vs the amount of gas needed (in therms)

1 kWh of electricity will generate 3412.14 BTUs of heat. Electric resistance heaters are 100% efficient so there are no losses. So every 3412.14 BTUs of heat that you call for, will cost you $0.086

For natural gas, 1 US therm will give you 99976.1 BTUs costing you $0.25 per therm.

You will need approximately 29.3 kWH of electricity (generating 99975.7 BTUs) to equal the BTUs generated by 1 therm of gas. This amount of electricity will cost you $2.52

Note this assumes your hot air furnace to be 100% efficient, which is not possible. So lets say you have an old unit that does 80% efficiency. You will need 20% more gas than needed to make up for the furnace losses.

Recalculating for furnace loss: We can multiply the $2.52 natural gas cost for 100% efficient by 1.20. This still equals $0.30 on an 80% efficiency furnace.

Way way cheaper to use gas than electric based on your costs.

but if he only needs heat in 1 room, then you're wasting gas on all the other rooms in the house.

it's a waste to heat the house if you're only going to use the kitchen or bathroom for a few min a day.

so if his house is 1500 sq feet and the room he's using is 110 sq feet, I feel that electric heater is cheaper.
(haven't done the calcs)

 

[Paladin3]

Small two bedroom apartment. We save a bit of money by not running our gas furnace and only heating the room we are in with an oil-filled electric heater. I prefer it cooler than my daughter does, especially in my bedroom, so the heater goes in her room or gets turned off at night.

As everyone else has said, heating the whole house is best done with the gas furnace. If you only want to heat a room or two and are willing to let the others go cold then you might save by using an electric space heater. I personally like the oil-filled versions as they seem to slowly heat the entire room better for the money.

It's 33F outside (feels like 24F) and lightly snowing. The heater is in my daughters room on low with the door cracked open and I am comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt in the living room. Many would find it cold, but I guess it's just what you get acclimated to.

 

[crashtech]

I think the only way to really know is to try it out. There are far too many variables to say for sure. Even if the dwelling had a recent energy audit and the costs of gas and power were known, there's still a good amount of uncertainty. Given that electricity is costlier than gas per equivalent unit, my sense is that even if the space heating of a smaller volume route is slightly less expensive, it may not be worth the inconvenience, and also introduces greater risk of fire.

 

[dullard]

As everyone else has said, heating the whole house is best done with the gas furnace. If you only want to heat a room or two and are willing to let the others go cold then you might save by using an electric space heater. I personally like the oil-filled versions as they seem to slowly heat the entire room better for the money.

If we are going really cost effective, why heat the entire room?

A space heater with a fan can basically heat just the area around you. Sure, some of the heat will escape to the rest of the room. But, you can easily have the house around 50°F (to prevent water pipes from bursting), the room you are in at maybe 60°F, and a bubble around you at 80°F.

I did this for years. It works quite well saving hundreds of dollars each winter. That is, until I got married.

 

[Thebobo]

I read somewhere that 50 cats can heat up a small house.

 

[momeNt]

Another alternative is just wrapping yourself in a heated blanket. Heat just your own body, and make sure the house is set warm enough to keep pipes safe, and the structure safe from excess expansion / contraction.

 

[momeNt]

I read somewhere that a 50 cats can heat up a small house.

That may be cost effective if you aren't feeding them but let them out to feed and bring that energy back into the house. What you then have to worry about is making sure that the thresholds are not leaking too much energy. Having the cats come in through a breezeway or somewhere else to buffer the heat loss from entering and leaving would work though.

 

[JEDI]

Another alternative is just wrapping yourself in a heated blanket. Heat just your own body, and make sure the house is set warm enough to keep pipes safe, and the structure safe from excess expansion / contraction.

heated blanket not mobile.

use a battery powered heated vest that uses 18650 batteries.
change out the batteries every 6hrs

 

[Thebobo]

Or get really really fat, walrus like fat.

 

[momeNt]

heated blanket not mobile.

use a battery powered heated vest that uses 18650 batteries.
change out the batteries every 6hrs

Very good suggestion.

I believe Volt Resistance is pretty big in this. Carhartt makes heated jackets.

https://www.amazon.com/Volt-Resista...-2-spons&keywords=volt+heated+vest&th=1&psc=1

 

[dullard]

Very good suggestion.

I believe Volt Resistance is pretty big in this. Carhartt makes heated jackets.

https://www.amazon.com/Volt-Resistance-Fleece-Heated-XX-Large/dp/B00BN1CF5I/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1509638242&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=volt+heated+vest&th=1&psc=1

The problem with battery powered clothing is that unless you live in a place that is always cold, they will be idle for many months each year. Batteries, especially lithium batteries like you linked, die if they sit drained and idle. And it gets hard to remember to top up your battery powered clothing in the middle of August while your air conditioner is on. The result is very expensive battery replacements each year. And that destroys the whole cost effectiveness that we are striving for.

 

[zinfamous]

Currently living the dream with gas-powered radiated heat.

 

[JEDI]

Very good suggestion.

I believe Volt Resistance is pretty big in this. Carhartt makes heated jackets.

https://www.amazon.com/Volt-Resistance-Fleece-Heated-XX-Large/dp/B00BN1CF5I/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1509638242&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=volt+heated+vest&th=1&psc=1

$160?!

diy for under $10:
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=thread...dering-usb-connector-to-battery-pack.2525432/

14.8v should be warm enough?

 

[shortylickens]

Or get really really fat, walrus like fat.

 

[mindless1]

Don't understand the question. You can close heat duct vents to whatever %/extent you want to limit heat to particular rooms and then gauge thermostat setting from the room the t-stat is in to determine target temp for the occupied rooms, OR move the t-stat to a more appropriate location.

The main issue with closing off a bunch of ducts is keeping enough airflow that it doesn't build up too high and trip the furnace overheat sensor.

You could do a combination of that and supplemental electric heat in your most used zones.