natural gas vs space heaters price

[BHopkins]

Wow. Sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your local natural gas company. That's got to be discouraging.

The price difference between natural gas and electricity varies quite a bit in different parts of the country. When I lived in Western Kentucky, electricity was super cheap. But in general, you can expect electric heat to be very expensive. And space heaters are the least efficient means of electric heat. But they do have one advantage. It is real easy to only heat those parts of the house you want to heat, when you want to heat them.

Someone mentioned the oil filled electric space heaters. These are by far the safest form of space heater. But they are also the slowest to heat a room. They will work better in rooms that you will almost always want to keep heated.

If you anticipate that changing over to electric heat being a permanent decision, you may want to consider a heat pump. But only if you are really committed to the change. Heat pumps are not cheap. Also, be prepared that they are only capable of keeping you comfortable down to a certain temperature. Heat pump units almost always have backup heat coils that come on when the heat pump can no longer keep your house warm. For most heat pumps, that's right about at freezing. When the coils come on, the electric meter spins fast. Of course, it will be no worse than space heaters.

 

[Rolla07]

If it comes from ur debit account, its simple, threaten to sue. U dont think the BBB would be after that??? If you stay with a company who steals from u..i dont know what to say to that.

 

[Dufus2]

The radiator type space heaters you mentioned are cost effective and safe to use. I use them with my heat pump in cold weather (Below 35 degrees) because the "emergency heat" function is constructed much like a toaster and quite expensive. Use one 1500w heater in each room, a small fan behind the radiator also helps.

My parents have a gas furnace and I never thought it had the same heat output as oil in relation to the monthly cost.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: djb
Electric space heaters are all 100% efficient.

No matter what type.

The only difference is where they put the heat. A specific heater might be able to keep you feeling warm without heating the room as much. A radiant heater can do this, but there will be heat "shadows". Heaters with fans are smaller and put the heat in a specific area, such as at your feet, but are noisy and may result in a cold-feeling draft elsewhere.



It's true that electric heat is 100% efficient, however the way to break it down is cost per btu. Natural gas is going to be way cheaper per btu unless you happen to be in an area with below average electric costs. My guess is that the OP just intends to use plug in electric space heaters which could be bought for $15-20 each, but they are considered a fire hazard as cords can get frayed and stray material can cause fires. To really upgrade to electric heat would mean putting in electric baseboard which probably calls for installing 220v double pole 20amp breakers in the electrical panel. Running electric heat might put you into a different rate code for electricity though. In terms of just natural gas space heaters, price wise they're quite cheap for the amount of heat they put out, under $1000 for 50-65k btu. A heat pump would be in several thousand range.

 

[eljefino]

If you're having issues with the gas company pay them "something" every month during the winter... they can't legally shut you off if you're "trying to pay".

They must have an office downtown. Get a receipt. Even for $20.

When you use electric heat, the electric company has already burned natural gas and made it spin a turbine, lost 2/3 of the juice in the grid to deliver it to your house. Not as efficient as burning it yourself. As far as electric heaters... every watt consumed is heat, it's the nature of the beast. "Better" heaters just have fans to let it hit every cold corner.

 

[Mavigraph]

What about switching over to propane. You would just have to re-jet your furnace and get a tank. Then you could use the system you have in place.

 

[hatt]

Sounds easier and cheaper to sort out the problem you're having with the gas company. Have you gathered up the paperwork and drove to the gas company?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: hatt
Sounds easier and cheaper to sort out the problem you're having with the gas company. Have you gathered up the paperwork and drove to the gas company?


This. Gas is going to be WAY cheaper to heat with. It certainly is up here.

I replaced our early 70's vintage Olson furnace a couple of years back now with a new unit that has a variable speed fan and multi-stage heat. This is heating a 103 year old brick home. I wouldn't even want to think about heating this house with electric but it is surprisingly cheap with gas.

 

[stockrex]

whole house, gas is cheaper than electric depending which state you are in and how much they utilities charge you.

in MI is it cheaper to heat with nat gas.
but I still use electric heaters to heat rooms above garage.
peak winter my bill is like:
$350 for gas, $150 for electric.

 

[Bladecutter]

Originally Posted By: ram_man
I also don't care for natural gas with the whole boom factor


What boom factor?

Unless something really stupid is done, the chances of having your furnace explode is practically 0. Think of how many houses in the US use natural gas for heating. Now try to find out how many actually explode every day. Pretty low amount of catastrophic failures.

Also, what heats your hot water?
Gas or electric?

If you're using gas to heat your water, well, guess what - you're still going to have to pay the gas company every month.

The real question I have is why don't you pay your bill online, instead of calling in every month and paying by phone? Since you are able to login on to BITOG every day, you obviously have an internet connection, and know how to use a login and password. Pay your bills online.

BC.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Bladecutter
Pay your bills online.

That's basically the solution to this whole drama.

 

[JustinH]

I have used online bill pay for every bill for the past 10 years.

Never have logged into a providers dumb website, just let them send me a bill in the mail, then I direct my bank to send them a check on what day.

Less passwords that way.

As for natural fuel heating, we even have it down here in Central Texas. So cheap to heat with.

Let me put it this way, my 3br house with a forced air gas furnace is cheaper to heat than my studio apartment in Austin that had electric heat.

 

[Nayov]

OP's inquiring about an electric furnace.

Anyway, I have a quartz space heater from Walmart ($48?) and it puts out an incredible amount of heat (bathroom). Cost to run for one hour: 20 cents.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Nayov
OP's inquiring about an electric furnace.

I used to live in an 800 sq ft apt that had an electric furnace. It was pitiful. It struggled to keep the place warm. The heat coming out of the vents was never as warm as from a gas furnace. It would run almost non-stop just to maintain temp in the high 60s, and my electric bill used to be extremely high. And that was in Virginia which doesn't even get all that cold (relatively).

I would never use an electric furnace if gas was available.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Nayov
OP's inquiring about an electric furnace.

I used to live in an 800 sq ft apt that had an electric furnace. It was pitiful. It struggled to keep the place warm. The heat coming out of the vents was never as warm as from a gas furnace. It would run almost non-stop just to maintain temp in the high 60s, and my electric bill used to be extremely high. And that was in Virginia which doesn't even get all that cold (relatively).

I would never use an electric furnace if gas was available.



The furnace was too small. A bigger one would have kept up.

When I lived in Nottawa ontario we had a 6000 square foot house and at the time it was built there was no natural gas available so it got an electric furnace.
That furnace had no problems keeping the house warm.

Electric heat is becoming more efficient vs the radiant heater days however natural gas will always be cheaper.

 

[Cujet]

3400 BTU per KWH with electric. My local power runs about 12c per KWH. So, it's $1.20 for 34,140BTU.

Heating oil has about 138,000 BTU/gal. with some loss of efficiency.

Nat gas is roughly 45c per 100,000 BTU.

Looking at it this way, locally, elec resistance heat is (very roughly) 10x more expensive. It's a good thing I don't need heat....

 

[andyd]

I call and order propane as needed. By card and account number.Likewise with heating oil. Wood too. I also wear a sweater and have a sleeping cap. I also have 220 electric base board in a few rooms. Electric heat is 'spensive and the others aren't cheap either.

 

[stockrex]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
3400 BTU per KWH with electric. My local power runs about 12c per KWH. So, it's $1.20 for 34,140BTU.

Heating oil has about 138,000 BTU/gal. with some loss of efficiency.

Nat gas is roughly 45c per 100,000 BTU.

Looking at it this way, locally, elec resistance heat is (very roughly) 10x more expensive. It's a good thing I don't need heat....


for MI:
Electric rate (per kilowatt-hour) = 0.1450
Cost of heat (per 100,000 BTU) = 4.25

Natural gas cost per 100 cubic feet = 0.75
Burner efficiency factor = 90%
Cost of heat (per 100,000 BTU) = 0.80

I used this calculator:
http://www.maxmcarter.com/fuels/fuelscalc.html

 

[Cujet]

Note: electrical resistance heating of any sort, is always near 100% efficiency, as mentioned above. Quartz, ceramic, wire, hot oil, baseboard or fan based forced air heaters are all similarly efficient.

However, that does not mean you get a good "bang for your buck". The energy that went into producing and distributing that electrical power is about 60%++ more than you get out of the elec heater! You pay for that!

Heat pumps, on moderate days, can have a C-O-P (co-efficient of performance) of 3 or more. That means you can actually get about 9,000 BTU from 1KWH of elec power. (not on very cold days)