Re: Music for Sysadmins...

wollman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Garrett Wollman) writes:
Even with the latest increases, electric heating is
still much more expensive than gas or oil.

Depends on where you are in N.A.

Resistive electric is only about 20-30% more expensive than a
conventional gas-fired heater, comparing storage heaters in both
cases.

The trick is, they use units on your bill you cannot compare readily,
and of course you've also got to figure out how to allocate the stuff
they _don't_ tell you about when they say "5.5 cents/kWh". Which
winds up being around "11 cents/kWh + $10/month for the privilege of
getting a bill."

Gas winds up being 6 cents/kWh, but my furance and water heater are at
best 70% efficient....

And for families, there's a flat-rate electric water heater deal you
can get. They can turn off the flat-rate heaters when the price of
electricity gets too high, so you want a bigger-than-normal storage
tank. But the usual residential load pattern is lots first thing in
the morning, then a bit in the evening. Works out fairly well.

With the new Smart Meters, I'm sure there's plenty of "known
solutions" to storage heating time-shift issues that we can find out
about from a Certain Other Commonwealth Country.

OTOH, I was visiting friends in the U.S. and they were really happy
that their base electricity rate was a mere 11 cents/kWh. (Plus
transmission charge, plus account charge.) And back home, people were
whining about 5.5 cents....

--
"Look, dear, I got you a mild concussion."
-- Rich Franklin on his wife's 30th birthday
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Natural gas versus electricity
    ... >>We replaced our gas water heater with another gas heater, ... >>electricity is ten cents per KWH, up from nine cents a year ago. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Water heater question... hook up in series?
    ... That way if the gas heater failed, ... still have hot water while you were getting a replacement. ... expensive electricity just has to make up any stand-by losses.- Hide quoted text - ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: water heaters...gas or elect?
    ... for a gas tank we neeed to run gas lines which we would prefer to not ... mostly on how much gas costs vs electricity in your area, ... the water heater regardless of whether it is electric or gas. ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Water heater question... hook up in series?
    ... That way if the gas heater failed, ... shower at or near the same time as the whirlpool was used. ... expensive electricity just has to make up any stand-by losses.- Hide quoted text - ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Wanted: a "Save energy, be more secure" howto
    ... >> Of course an electric heater is 100% efficient. ... >> consumed by an electric heater generates heat. ... OTOH, on a real crappily wired house, that may well exceed the rated ... energy input in the form of electricity was actually spent within the ...
    (Fedora)