Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
I don't see how, unless your electricity is even cheaper than dirt. It just equates to electric resistance heating, which is about the most expensive heat there is.
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No calculations? I used to firmly believe what you said and paid many thousands too much for heating. Resistance heating is about 3412 BTU/kWh which for me is $0.06. That is per kWh as measured at the house (not kWh produced at the power plant) so losses are already factored in. So by dividing, I get 56000 BTU per dollar of resistance heat. Propane on the other hand, I have paid as much as $2.60 a gallon, each gallon is 92000 BTU (at 100% efficiency which a gas furnace is not). So at best propane is 36000 BTU per dollar at that price.
I know some people can get propane cheaper than $2 and electric is more than 8 cents off peak, but when you factor in gas furnace efficiency, even then it is very tough to calculate a scenario where propane wins. Plus electric heaters are easier to customize on timers for each room individually.
I have not seen a careful calculation of pollutants but I suspect they are close. The coal plants have scrubbers and other point-source mitigation, but the propane furnace is just vented from so many millions of houses. Sure
if you neglect coal mining energy, petroleum subsidies/wars, energy for refinement, and the gasoline or diesel needed to transport to distribution facilities and deliver all the propane, there is surely additional "total energy" in the electric heating scenario due to thermal and transmissions losses, the physics says there must be. But even in that specialized measure of efficiency, that does not mean net effect of electric heating is worse either in dollars or pollutant level. I still burn propane during on-peak electric, of course, but switching to electric off-peak I think comes out far ahead.