On Oct 7, 8:19*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:47:46 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Oct 7, 6:49*pm, wrote:
On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:36:25 -0500, AZ Nomad

wrote:
On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:21:01 -0400, 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?

Your electric heating is 100% efficient. It ALL turns to heat
somewhere in the house and none is lost out the "stack". It CAN be
cheaper than propane or oil. Sometimes.
I've told many people who converted from electric to gas to leave the
electric heat installed - if gas prices spike, use the electric.

Generally, electric heat is 10 times more expensive than fossil fuels..
It has to be one hell of a fuel price spike for electric heat to be worth
it. *The only time electric heat can be remotely reasonable is if only
one room is heated.

Definitely not necessarilly true. Many places in North America
Electric heat can compete TODAY with fossil fuels and win.

It would help if people would be clear about what they mean by
electric heat, ie do you mean resistance heat or are you including
heat pump systems? * * I think when most people use the term electric
heat, they mean resistance heat.

*Even resistance heat can, and does, compete favourably with propane
and oil in some areas.

Yeah, I don't doubt that it does in SOME special areas. But when you
say MANY, then I think most of us would disagree.

On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:02:38 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Oct 7, 8:19Â*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:47:46 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Oct 7, 6:49Â*pm, wrote:
On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:36:25 -0500, AZ Nomad

wrote:
On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:21:01 -0400, 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?

Your electric heating is 100% efficient. It ALL turns to heat
somewhere in the house and none is lost out the "stack". It CAN be
cheaper than propane or oil. Sometimes.
I've told many people who converted from electric to gas to leave the
electric heat installed - if gas prices spike, use the electric.

Generally, electric heat is 10 times more expensive than fossil fuels.
It has to be one hell of a fuel price spike for electric heat to be worth
it. Â*The only time electric heat can be remotely reasonable is if only
one room is heated.

Definitely not necessarilly true. Many places in North America
Electric heat can compete TODAY with fossil fuels and win.

It would help if people would be clear about what they mean by
electric heat, ie do you mean resistance heat or are you including
heat pump systems? Â* Â* I think when most people use the term electric
heat, they mean resistance heat.

Â*Even resistance heat can, and does, compete favourably with propane
and oil in some areas.

Yeah, I don't doubt that it does in SOME special areas. But when you
say MANY, then I think most of us would disagree.
How many does it take to be many? More than a few. How about 10 or
15? But then, how big IS an area?

I think I'm still safe to say many. Definitely not most, or majority.

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).