On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 09:15:00 -0330, "SteveC"
wrote:

We currently have an Oil burning funace heating Hot Water radiant
baseboards. Oil is getting expensive where we live, $0.88 cents per liter.
We are thinking of adding an Electric Furnace to the existing Oil Furnace,
sort of Hybrid system, Just in case I guess. Electicity is $0.09 cents a
KWh, which is not too bad, for now. We always get price hikes though and
could rise. I know that an Electric furnace is 100% Efficient, which is
better then the 80% or so efficiency of the oil furnace.

Anyway, anyone have any advice or things to watch out for, makes/models are
best?

I live in Newfoundland, Canada if that matters.

Hi Steve,

One litre of heating oil contains 36,500 BTUs and at 80 per cent
conversion efficiency, you net roughly 8.6 kWh of heat per litre. If
you currently pay $0.88 a litre, your cost per kWh of oil heat is
$0.103.

Over 95 per cent of your electricity is hydro-electric generated, so I
wouldn't expect electricity rates to increase at nearly the same pace
as oil. Over the long term, I expect electricity to be your better
option. [Here in Nova Scotia, the average cost of heating oil runs
anywhere from $0.909 to $0.957 a litre, not including taxes -- over
the past twelve years, our electricity costs have risen 28 per cent,
whereas heating oil prices have nearly tripled.]

Personally, I would keep your oil-fired boiler for now but use
portable electric space heaters to offset as much of your heating
demand as possible -- the oil-filled units are a good choice because
their surface temperatures are relatively low compared to the other
alternatives and they often provide multiple wattage settings (handy
if there are other appliances sharing the same circuit).

Best regards,
Paul