Advice On Electric Heating Vs Natural Gas
posted on 10/23/2009
Here in south central Indiana, as well as in many different parts of the country, most of us heat our homes with natural gas. And that was fine with me - at least until I got my first, winter utility bill, last year. My average bill runs around two hundred dollars per month. But in January of 2008, the total bill was $520. I was sure that the utility company had made a mistake. Not!
After I calmed down, I got online to check my bill and discovered something that I never knew about natural gas. It's expensive, at least here in Indiana! While electric costs about 14 cents per KWh, natural gas is priced at $1.31 per Therm; nearly ten times more than electric!
Well, it was obvious to me that heating with electric mostly, would reduce the bills for the following months. Off I went to my local Walmart, to look for portable, electric heaters.
The one I finally chose was made by Honeywell (Pro Series, pictured below) and was priced at $30. I purchased four of them. The idea was to place them in the four areas of the house that got the coldest, and then to turn the gas heat all the way down to 65 degrees. (I did have to leave the heat on, because if it wasn't running at all, the pipes would freeze. But at that low temperature, and with the four heaters running on and off throughout the day, I hoped that the gas wouldn't turn on as frequently, and thus, save me some money.)
You wouldn't think that those tiny heaters could sustain us in a 1300 sq. ft. house, but thankfully, they did! As the next few, winter months passed, I noticed a steady drop in my utility bill. After using those heaters for three months, my bills went all the way down to about $260. I was more than pleased.
Be sure to analyze your utility bills and check to see what you're paying. If electric is cheaper, use that as your major heating source. Growing up, I'd always heard that gas was cheaper than electric but I guess times have changed and we need to change with them. It was either that or pay a utility bill that was almost as much as my mortgage!
This year, I've added a kerosene heater to my collection of alternative heating methods. We just put it together the other night, and it works wonderfully. I noticed though that, just like everything else, kerosene (that used to be $1.00/gallon) is now $3.00. Still, it will come in handy if the power goes out (as it did last year in January, during an ice storm) and we don't have use of electricity.
If you can afford it, now or in the future, the best and most powerful heat source I've ever used was a wood burning fireplace with an automatic blower. I'd swear by those as they are capable of throwing incredible amounts of heat throughout an entire house in less than a half hour. That, probably, will be my next investment. For now, it's electric, all the way!
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