What are the pros and cons of electric heating?
We recently bought a home with electric heating. We’ve always had gas before and I wanted to know about some of your experiences with it.
How much more expensive? I was paying about 0 in the winter per month for gas heat in a very poorly insulated home.
Thanks for the info about gas heat, but I no longer have it and can’t exactly replace my entire electric heating system. I’m kinda stuck with eletric for now.
quiet. expensive.
Very expensive.
I hate electric heating. We also bought a home with it. It does not work near as well as gas heat and is more expensive. With gas heat, once it turns off you can still feel the heat in the air, with electric, as soon as the unit goes off you are cold again. Just make sure your home is very well insulated, perhaps that will help.
Please check this link below to see the pros and cons of various heating options.
Not much dif. Just gettin screwed by a different utility,s co.
Depends on the type.
Baseboard heat isn’t really very good. It relies on convection to move the heat through the room. It is slow and expensive.
Radiant heat from the ceiling, walls, and floor are about the same in my opinion. They use a lot of power and only heat a very specific area. These also rely on convection to move the heat about. But I will say this, floor radiant heat is really nice on cold winter mornings!
Fan forced heating is the better alternative. I like individual units in each room. This allows you to heat (or not to heat) different areas at different settings. I think you get your best bang for you buck in this.
Electric furnace has been, in my experience, a great white shark devouring power and my money. Unless all the ducts are well connected and insulated, you loose heat. Most furnaces will heat to 1 (or in rare cases 2) thermostats. Leaving the remainder of the house to a vast array of temperatures. You can add A/C, sometimes.
Heat pumps are better than furnaces. These have the sane problem as electric furnaces by having 1 thermostat. Most have the option for A/C.
This is a brief selection covering some of my experience having worked for a power company many years back. Always compare BTU’s (British Thermal Units) vs. power consumption. You want high BTU’s with low consumption for economy. From there it depends on what you can afford and what you want from the system.
Who knows this year with the cost of heating, natural gas the last I heard was up to $8.12 per cubic ft. Either way you are getting raped unless you heat with a wood burner.
OK, let’s start with the basics.
#1 – INSULATION
When you think you have enough, put in 30% more.
#2 – WINDOWS
The ole storm window trick is not the answer. We have stores in our area that sell seconds and often have great windows at super prices.
Forced air systems are the best , either gas or electric. A forced air system allows you to filter the air and also keep the temperatures of the rooms more even.
ELECTRIC vs GAS –
In my area gas and electric are now about the same. At one point the electric company bought the gas company.
You measure heating power in BTU’s. In your area, gas will have a certain number of btu’s per cubic foot, which your gas company will be glad to tell you. Electricity has about 3400 btu’s per kilo watt. Now you have something to work with.
I sell lots of heat pumps in this area. A good heat pump will give you more than $2 of free heat for every $1 that you spend in electricity.
Here you go another professional opinion!
Electric heat vs Gas heat. I will assume since you have a gas furnace now, you are talking about electric heat pump with electric heat banks in the air handler.
It works the same your thermostat turns the unit on and off so this business about the room temp not being as warm is garbage. The thermostat will bring the room up to whatever you set it to. It is tru that the air coming out of the furnace may not be as warm as you are used to, but that is now the case with all new high efficiency gas furnaces too.
Is electric really more expensive? Gas prices are insane! A typical gas furnace is 80% efficient so that means you spent $150 for gas last year per month. You really only needed $120 per month because 20% of your gas was turned into exhaust due to inefficiencies in your furnace.
Argument is Electric is 100% efficient you lose none of the heat if it makes the heat it goes into your home!!
My experiences are that many people use it here in Michigan and have no problem my Grandfather would swear to you by it!
It is ultimitely your decision, but I hope I have helped you some anyways.
Electric heat used to be much more expensive than gas heat. But now the gas utility company will charge you a "fuel charge" over and above their base fee. This is because the cost of natural gas varies with market conditions. I’m not so sure that electrical heating is that much more than gas.
When you compare the cost you need to be careful. In an all electric home the electric bill will be much higher than one with gas, but the gas bill is zero.
The cost difference also depends upon where you live. I live on the Gulf Coast, so we only heat about 2 months per year. The majority of my electric bill is air conditioning. In addition, it depends upon how well insulated the home is.
I didn’t like my electric heating system when I first moved into my home, but I’ve come to enjoy the fact that I never have to fuss with it. I don’t have to light a pilot light in the fall, And it doesn’t dry out the house like gas heat does.