Comments on: Gas vs. Electric Heating

By: Alfred

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:23:37 +0000

Thanks for these very informative comments. I would add that heat can also be saved in winter by insulating your ceiling (in the attic) and your house from the outside. Planting shade trees on the south side of your house will save on air conditioning costs in summer. I live in western Canada, and heat my home with an outside wood-burning-furnace, as we do not have natural gas on this acreage. Electricity, in my opinion, is one of the most expensive ways to produce heat

By: Electric Heaters Review

Electric Heaters Review — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:11:01 +0000

Gas heaters able deliver more heat BTU-wise than electric heaters.
Take for example the portable Mr Heater ( http://electric-heaters-review.com/mr-heater-mh18b-portable-big-buddy-heater-review ), 15,000 BTUs. And what can the 2,000 Watts electric heaters do? 6,000 BTUs at their best but wast majority does around 5,000 on 1,500 Watts power.
You just have to decide if you take the risk by using gas heater indoors. (Fire-hazard, carbon-monoxide poisoning danger, etc).
I wouldn’t however would recommend them in garages and sheds, but never unattended.

By: HVAC MAN

HVAC MAN — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:20:16 +0000

Heating with electricity IS more efficient when a high SEER heat pump when below the 40th parallel.

By: Electric Heaters Review

Electric Heaters Review — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:49:40 +0000

Gas has more potential, more BTUs I mean. Electric space heater limit is around 5000 BTUs at 1,500 Watts.
But on the other hand gas heaters are pretty dangerous. The hazards and other safety issues and comparisons of heater types can be read on the main page of the http://electric-heaters-review.com website.

By: Shelley

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:21:49 +0000

My parents when they bought this house back in 1965 was an oil boiler with electric heat. When i took over the house when they passed away is gas boiler with electric heat. It is a good price so it seems to me. I live in Canada where I get all seasons and can either bring up the heat for down the heat and gas and electric heat.

By: Writing Jobs

Writing Jobs — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 07:13:23 +0000

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By: Wha??

Wha?? — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:09:27 +0000

In what universe are natural gas prices going up? Don’t confuse the price at the pump with natural gas, two totally different products. Natural gas is at a ten year low. Electricity prices are climbing and will continue to but for the next several year I’d stick with natural gas for space or water heating.

By: Fredllfixit

Fredllfixit — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:40:55 +0000

Addendum for admin. purposes.

By: Fredllfixit

Fredllfixit — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:34:46 +0000

Hi, Fred calling from Leeds in England.
Currently I am forecasted for next year to pay 5pence per Kw/h for gas and 11.5pence per Kw/h for electricity. There’s around 11.36Kw/h in a cubic metre of the natural gas from the gas grid at a calorific value of 40. Both energy supplies are via a company called “Scottish Power” who just this evening declared they were raising electricity prices by 9%. At the moment a £ gets around a $1:55.
The era of cheap power is over, e.g. we are paying now in UK over £6:00 per UKgallon of petrol or diesel, so it makes huge commonsense not to waste ANY of that expensively acquired heat for the house.
Around a year ago, I went on the rampage at home, checking just what was consuming power, and whether it was necessary — there were a few eye-openers!
I couldn’t quite add up the amount of electricity being used until I checked the frige-freezer. Oddly, one wall of the fridge was warm when it shouldn’t have been.
Turned out whoever had installed it (NOT me!) had completely blocked the ventilation for the condenser at the the back. So the motor of 300watts was working about three times as hard as it should, and the waste heat was warming the side of the fridge. Promptly unblocked.
My ‘central heating’ comprizing a gas boiler plus radiators and circulating hot water seemed to be quite thirsty for gas. So I cleaned the cast-iron heat exchanger in the boiler with a wire brush and scraper, getting a lot of crud off it. Some improvement. Next I reduced the flue gas flow so the outside exhaust got a little steamy like everyone else’s. More improvement. Tests made for any back leak of course.
Next I measured my gas consumption for hot water against an electric immersion heater in the same tank. Amazingly, after doing the math, electricity was a little cheaper! So I added an electric time-clock.
But the biggest saving of all was in heating with gas. Even with the improvements I’d made, it seemed expensive. So I fitted a giant gas fire of 6Kw capacity with TWO internal heat exchangers in the lounge, and used that instead of the wastefully controlled gas boiler (I mean the on-off system they all use).
So now I heat one room, same as before with the central heating, but much more efficiently.
Checks show that gas consumption in summer is zero, and in winter between 6 and 9 cubic metres per week. Electricity consumption is around 66 to 70Kw/h per week throughout the year, which includes odd-times use of a fan heater in the bathroom.
Overall result? My tot. power costs have gone down to a little over one THIRD of what they were. This included swapping suppliers and going onto direct debit payment.
You can do it too, just ignore people who are covertly trying to sell you something (like a new “super-efficient” boiler), and those well-meaning people who write in sites like this et al as if they are gurus, but in fact are just parroting data from other sources that may or may not be right. You gotta make your own measurements, trust no-one!
Fred, Leeds, England.

By: CE

CE — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 08:19:33 +0000

Yes , this help allot. And made my wife correct again.. :)