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Pete C.

wrote:

On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 10:04:03 -0700 (PDT), ST
wrote:

I just read this from an AP article:
"Households are expected to pay an average of $783, nearly 12 percent
less than last winter, for natural gas, and $1,821 for heating oil,
about 2 percent lower. People using electric heat will pay $933, a
decline of 2 percent and those using propane $1,667, or 14 percent
less than last winter, the agency said."

Isn't electric the most expensive of all? Or are they saying that
people who use electric heat have that as their average bill, but
they're in warmer climes so they don't need as much heating anyway?

Gas, particularly propane, is getting expensive compared to
electricity. We all know what happened to oil prices. You see the
signs on the pumps at the shop and rob (heating oil is basically
diesel)
I suspect the "warmer climate" thing is part of it but anyone in a
cooler place than South Florida probably uses heat pumps and they are
pretty efficient until it really gets cold.

Where I am we just have toaster wire heat but the heating season is
about 5 nights a year, maybe a day or two.

The big problem with all these type of articles is that they typically
don't properly define what type of "electric" heat, since there are
several types with quite different overall efficiencies. There is a big
difference in operating cost between electric resistive heat vs.
electric heat pump (air or ground source).