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LifeIsARollerCoaster t1_j9ds4fk wrote

Reply to comment by ACorania in Heat Pumps Sell Like Hotcakes on America's Oil-Rich Frontier by dolphins3

Electric space heaters are close to 100% energy efficient. Gas heaters have over 80% energy efficiency. That’s the physics part. The cost part depends on the price of gas and price of electricity. If gas prices are higher like in the last few months or If you have solar panels then the cost of electricity is less and you will save money like I did by using a space heater

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_craq_ t1_j9en1sy wrote

Heat pumps get 200-300% efficiency.

For people whose electricity is generated from gas, you should include the efficiency of generating electricity in your calculation. So a space heater would be ~50%, but a heat pump still beats direct gas heating.

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ghostridur t1_j9fyld3 wrote

There are 100000 btus in a therm of natural gas and 3142 btus in a kwh of electric so using $1.316 of gas for heating is equivalent to $5.506 in electricity for a space heater at the current rates I am paying for ng and electric. Heat pumps probably won't catch on as much in the north for heating we mostly use them for cooling in the summer. Even with a crank case heater and an auxiliary heat grid inside the head getting below 5 they really struggle.

I'll stick with my 96.3% furnace for now. The premature push to have everything all electric is just a good way to sell more natural gas to electric power companies for generation. Just costs the end user more money.

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LifeIsARollerCoaster t1_j9g3pc0 wrote

The math is different for people who have solar panels or those who have much higher gas prices

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