Go gas if you possibly can!
100 CCF of natural gas is approx 100,000 BTU of heat. assuming convential
equipment burning at 80% efficiency you'll recover 80,000 BTU for your $1.01
spent. 1 kWh of electricity will provide 3413BTU (at 100% efficiency) so
you'll need about 23.4 kWh of electricity at a cost of $1.65 to get the same
net 80,000 BTU of heat so your electricity cost for heating will be about
163% of the cost for nateral gas w/ a conventional (non condensing) furnace
or boiler. With a high efficiency (say 90%) condensing natural gas system
the differance is closer to 184%. And this is w/ a favorable electric rate!
it would be worse at say 0.09/kWh or even higher, as it is in the North East
US. If propane is used instead, a gallon of propane is about 92,000 BTU and
the efficiencies of 80-90% still apply, so cost differance to electricity
may be less (depending on your propane prices) but I'd guess propane's still
a much better deal. Heating oil (140,000 BTU/ gallon & 82-85% efficiency) is
another potential opton perhaps similar in price to natural gas, but I'd
guess a lot less common in SW OH than New England. Note too, gas is cheaper
to heat hot water and to dry cloths with and nicer to cook with in addition
to cheaper to heat with, however indood gas lighting went out of style in
the early 20th C!


"Mark" wrote in message
oups.com...
In Southwest Ohio, I am currently paying about 1.01 per CCF for natural
gas and about .0704 per kWH for electricity, and I am looking at a
house to buy that has an old Williamsom electric furnace and heat pump.
With the approximate doubling of the cost of natural gas in the last
two years, I am wondering how the cost of electricity now compares to
natural gas. The cost figures I have used include the various riders
and other miscellanous charges that are part of both bills. Therefore,
I would like to how electricity compares to gas at these prices. The
house is a good deal in other ways, and I am still wondering if gas is
significantly cheaper than electricity.

Thanks,

MD