I am building a new house, and I have a choice of Electric or gas
forced air, and wondered if someone who has been thru this before
would comment on the pro's and con's of each of these heating
systems.

Thanks,

Critter074

wrote:

I am building a new house, and I have a choice of Electric or gas
forced air, and wondered if someone who has been thru this before
would comment on the pro's and con's of each of these heating
systems.

Thanks,

Critter074


Leaving aside the rate structures of the two,
look at the environmental aspects:

Electric generation (assuming oil/gas/coal combustion)
is only about 35% efficient. Yep. The rest goes up
as waste heat. There are hopes to boost the eff. to 45%,
but that's in the future.

Modern gas furnaces easily achieve eff. of 95% or more,
meaning only 5% goes up as wasted heat.

There are applications for electric power in our lives,
but heating from electricity is not a prudent use when
there are alternatives.

Jim

wrote:

I am building a new house, and I have a choice of Electric or gas
forced air, and wondered if someone who has been thru this before
would comment on the pro's and con's of each of these heating
systems.

Depends - what climate are you talking about? If by gas you mean street
delivered natural gas, and electric you mean resistance heating, electric is
usually much cheaper to install and much more expensive to run.

If you need heat & a/c and live in a temperate climate, then an electric
powered, air transfer heat pump might work OK. If you live in the more northern
climes, and geothermal heat pump will cost a lot to install but less to run.

And on and on and on.. Generally you should be able to look at your neighbors
and figure out what's common for your area.

wrote...
I am building a new house, and I have a choice of Electric or gas
forced air, and wondered if someone who has been thru this before
would comment on the pro's and con's of each of these heating
systems.

Check with the utility companies in the area, but generally gas heat is
cheaper than electric. In moderate climates, an electric heat pump may be
cheaper to run than separate gas heat and electric A/C.