A ? about heating price difference.

DH and I are thinking of getting a heating pump? to use electric heating instead of oil.  I seriously can no longer afford to heat my house with the oil.  I just can't come up with $1000 a couple times a winter.  I had to charge it twice this year and I can't do that again.

 

My question is:  Do you think electric heat is cheaper than oil?  Gas is out of the question.....

I would love to get a wood burner but by the time you get everything that goes with it, too pricey at once.

 

TIA

i don't know where you live but no way would I install Electric heat! My Dh was an Electrical Engineer and managed the Electric Company here and I fought him tooth and nail on changing over our heating system to electric years ago and am I happy I did. It would have cost me twice as much in bills even against the high cost of heating fuel here now. I'm actually considering getting a wood stove/pellet stove and putting it in my existing fireplace.

Electric heat here is sstill cheaper than propanel for how long nobody knows. (town is too far from any natural gas line). I think  a heat pump would be a good thing but you should inquire around YOUR area, maybe drive around and see if you can see some heat pumps. Then just ask those people

If I did not get heating assistance I would not be able to stay in this house but would have to move to an apartment. 85% of the people here heat with propane. A few electric only and a few with oil heated hot water heat which is most likely  faitly efficient.

I also wish I had the money to put in a metalbestos chimney and get a small coal heater,  coal is what we have plenty of around here.(no wood around here)

In a worse case scenario I can move into the basement, have a 220 volt space heater and a basement is easier to heat than a house because not much is exposed to wind/cold. The upstairs I would turn off the water and keep it just as low as the furnace will allow.

I wish I could find someone to move in with me , I would not charge rent, just  share part of the cost of utilities.

I think it depends on where you live.  We live in Denver, Colorado.  The choice is gas or electric.  Electricity here has always been high.  We heat with gas.  Also gas dryer.  I would never go with electric heat in this area...costs are way too high.

 

But if the choices were electric versus heating oil?  I don't know.  I would compare the costs.  Even if (heck, when) the cost of heating oil goes up, so will the cost of electricity.  Can you "lock" the price of heating oil for a long term type of contract?  Just because electricity looks to be cheaper now...doesn't mean it won't surpass the cost of heating oil.  Be careful

 

 

Forgot to say: do you have enough breakers and at least 200 amp service and the right kind of 220 wiring? If you don't, it will cost you plenty to install electric heat, it would be cheaper to have a metalbestors chimney put in and get a used wood stove (one you can at least set two pots on for cooking).

Again, with heating costs soaring the price of firewood is also going to go way up. Maybe a coal stove would be cheaper. In a coal stove you can burn wood and also  to burn some coal along with the wood, it woud keep a fire longer. No matter what you burn, you have to keep the chimney clean to avoid chimney fore that will result in your house burning down.

What state do you live in?

Oh, Gr_elo, nice thought about the coal stove...But have you considered the EPA?  Man, we don't want those nasty coal molecules floating around in the atmosphere, polluting the air the "other" folks.  I guess the EPA would rather have us freeze to death.  Grim

purseglove_MA_F_67:

i don't know where you live but no way would I install Electric heat! My Dh was an Electrical Engineer and managed the Electric Company here and I fought him tooth and nail on changing over our heating system to electric years ago and am I happy I did. It would have cost me twice as much in bills even against the high cost of heating fuel here now. I'm actually considering getting a wood stove/pellet stove and putting it in my existing fireplace.

 

PG, have you seen the outdoor wood stoves? It isn't the pellet ones, although, I have heard they are great. You feed this wood, but, only maybe once a day. DS and I were talking about them yesterday

You can find them online,but, I'm not sure what they are called.

Shadow, not sure what to tell you. It is all pretty expensive. My Mom and Dad put in something. Not sure what. I don't think it was the heat pump. Seems like it is heated with water.

We live in the Northern part of Illinois.  We have a heat pump/AC unit.  We also have electric heat.  I have found that comparing $$ with out neighbors who heat with gas we are either below their cost or equal.  I am sure that is because we have the heat pump.  Unless it gets really cold here our heat pump works and the elements don't so it saves us money and then in the summer months we flip a switch and it becomes our AC.  Why is gas out of the question, none available where you are at?  I do know that you can add a heat pump to the gas furnaces now that will also save heating costs. 

 

Guess you just have to do your homework and find what's best for you.  Oh, we put in a completely new unit this year,furnace and heat pump/AC, our other one was 25 years old and even on the coldest days/months we only had one bill that was $225.00.  All the rest were under $200.

We have baseboard electric heat, seperate control in each room, if I were to built another house I would have the same heat, I only pay one bill for everything and I can control the heat in each room, our electric rates are high-but electric is still cheaper than oil/gas. I love it, would not have a heat pump, they are effiecient in certain weathers and higher when that strip has to come on and plus the blowing air I hate, dusty. Check out some baseboard electric heat. Our house is about 1500 sq ft and our total electric is average $175 a month.

Thanks for the replys and I sure wish I could answer more of the questions, but I really don't know much about it.  I live in SW PA and there are no gas lines in this area.  We have circuit brakers and a 250 amp box.

cathyat:

Oh, Gr_elo, nice thought about the coal stove...But have you considered the EPA?  Man, we don't want those nasty coal molecules floating around in the atmosphere, polluting the air the "other" folks.  I guess the EPA would rather have us freeze to death.  Grim

This is wide open country, (1 to 2 people per sq mile)  there is no EPA here and most of the farmers/ranchers  still  heat with stoker coal furnaces, a lot cheaper than propane. The coal molecules don't  hang around here, our almost constant strong wind blows them to Minnesota and beyond. We are generous with our molecules and happily  share them with everybody who lives down wind from us

So, DH just read my post and said that I was wrong.  We are thinking about a heat pump that runs off electric.  Not electric vs oil.  lol like I said, I don't know much! lol  He said it would also be used as air conditioning.

 In Omaha you have two choices, natural or propane gas or electric. Electric heat is outrageously priced. We're on the budget plan and pay $95/mo for gas and water combined.

In Chicago and NW Indiana I had hot water heat. That's been the cheapest way of heating I've found yet.