# Electric Heat



## Helena (May 10, 2002)

We live very..simply but we are getting older as time goes by..:help: Have heated totally by wood for over 30 years and used for cooking also during winter months. Use propane for hot water and sometimes cooking..expensive.. No central heat in this old farm house so we have been thinking of what to do for heat so during the holidays we could leave home and visit family and on those lazy winter nights wouldn't need to get up and fill the wood/coal stoves. ( nut coal)..So even though I understand that electric baseboard heat is expensive to use but it is cheaper to install ..we are thinking of doing this during the summer. Natural gas not available to us and oil is not an option I want to take plus the added expensense with furnances and all. So...who has electric heat and what do you all think ?? Propane gas now is costing me $4.23 a # and it runs around $170 a month when used !!)


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

I live in an all-electric house -- 1600 sq. ft. I have a fireplace that is mainly ornamental, but does heat the center of the house OK. In the winter, my electric bill runs around $120-130, and in the summer with A/C about $100-110. In fall and spring when I'm not using either A/C or heat, the bill is $40-45.00. So for me heating costs about $70-80 a month with supplementing it with the fireplace. I live further south than you with milder winters, so take that into consideration. What I really like about having electricity is I can go off during the winter and set the heat to 50 to keep pipes from freezing. At my old place I had propane space heaters and was never comfortable going of and leaving them burning, which really crimped my ability to be away from the house.


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## Fourthistles (Feb 24, 2003)

I think a great deal depends on your electicity supplier as well as your winters. Here in northern Wyoming people who have electric heat commonly see bills of $300 or higher per month in the winter. I would never choose electric heat where there is real winter.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Chances are you will come out ahead with electric. Here is an online calculator:
Fuel Comparison Calculator


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## Hagler's Farm (Jan 9, 2012)

In my area electric is actually the cheapest per BTU between electric, propane, or oil. I spent quite abit of time running the numbers because my oil furnace crapped out this January. Luckily this winter was mild, I got away with 2 oil filled electric space heaters to suppliment my wood stove. It only increased my electric bill by about $75-125 a month depending on the outside temp and how much we where home to feed the stove.

I calculate that to heat my house on only electric would probably run around $600/ month.

I talked with all the furnace people around here and everyone was amazed when I asked for electric and only a couple would even install it. Everyone wants to do either gas or propane, and like you I don't have Natural gas availible even though the 2 30inch transmission lines that feed pretty much all SE Michigan run right through the middle of my property.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Many folks buy those 'Eden Pure' electric space heaters and really like the warmth.......

Until the next electric bill comes along . . . .then sticker shock...............


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
You might look into an air source heat pump or a mini split.
These would cost more initially, but might pay that back pretty quickly, as the heat bills would likely be less than half what regular electric heat would be.

Gary


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## Virgil (Sep 29, 2009)

I would suggest getting a complete energy audit of your home before investing into a different heating source... Often times a local community college, electric utility, or a local Cooperative Extension Service will provide this service to older home owners for free or for a minimal charge... Than compare those BTU figures with your annual coal/wood consumption. The amount of BTUs contained in various heating fuels minus system efficiency is really available on line. These figures should give you a realistic annual heat load for your home. If your home is older with minimal insulation in the walls, ceilings, and no foundation insulation which is a huge heat sink loss in colder climates you may find indeed that electric will be the less costly to install initially but, the monthly operating cost will be excessive. Your location in Northern Pennsylvania certainly can experience severe winter conditions for an extended period of time.... I agree with SolarGary to look at alternative heating systems... But, you need to have good information to make an informed decision... Perhaps, the state of Alabama would be cheaper alternative.... Good Luck....


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## Esteban29304 (Apr 29, 2003)

Virgil said:


> I would suggest getting a complete energy audit of your home before investing into a different heating source... Often times a local community college, electric utility, or a local Cooperative Extension Service will provide this service to older home owners for free or for a minimal charge... Than compare those BTU figures with your annual coal/wood consumption. The amount of BTUs contained in various heating fuels minus system efficiency is really available on line. These figures should give you a realistic annual heat load for your home. If your home is older with minimal insulation in the walls, ceilings, and no foundation insulation which is a huge heat sink loss in colder climates you may find indeed that electric will be the less costly to install initially but, the monthly operating cost will be excessive. Your location in Northern Pennsylvania certainly can experience severe winter conditions for an extended period of time.... I agree with SolarGary to look at alternative heating systems... But, you need to have good information to make an informed decision... Perhaps, the state of Alabama would be cheaper alternative.... Good Luck....


 I agree with above. 
I have used heat pumps for many years, & they are ideal && inexpensive, [ at least here ] compared to anything else. Heat & A/C are there when I need it. BUT ,, BUT,, I have always lived in well insulated homes .


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## Hagler's Farm (Jan 9, 2012)

While it may be true that heat pumps both air soarce and ground soarce (geothermal) are far more efficent than electric baseboard, they still won't be less than burning wood. So in my case as I assume is yours with wood being my primary heat soarse and electric being my second the extra (BIG extra!) expense of installing a heat pump would never be recovered, particularly if you don't already have a duct system in place. Not to mention that air soarse heat pumps don't work much below 40deg anyways which at least here in Michigan (nromally anyway) is most of the winter. Then your back to strait electric anyways.

My plan is to install a new air handler (i.e. blower) with electric heat elements (which makes an electric furnace) this summer to replace my dead oil furnace. This will basically be just a back up, as ultimately I plan on installing a heat exchanger in it and run a wood boiler as my primary heat which will also use the blower to circulate the hot air. Now I already have duct work in place that's why I'm sticking with it, it would actually be easier to use my plan if I had hot water baseboard already installed at which point I could just plumb into that system with the wood boiler.

One thing you can do that's very inexpensive to try it out is to simply buy a few oil filled electric space heaters. They are technically just as efficent as any electric heat, all resistance elecric heat is rated 100% efficent and equals 3410btu per killowatt . The only part where in my case they use more power is that they aren't on a programible thermostat so they keep the house the same temp all the time rather than like I program to let the temp drop at night. The only thing to watch is not to over load your circutes, In my case I made sure that there's only one heater and no other large loads per circut. By going the space heater route you can try it for very minimal expense.


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## nebula5 (Feb 4, 2003)

Because we have oil heat (very expensive,) this winter we tried heating with just electric space heaters- 2 in the main area of the house, 1 in my daughter's bedroom. Having 3 heaters on almost continuously for 3 months cost about $150 a month. The transition months- Oct, Nov, Mar, April- we only run 1 or 2 heaters- much cheaper. Heating with oil (approx 400 [email protected] 4.00 a gallon) would have been at least $1600.
It was a very mild winter for NY- mostly 20's and 30's. If we had weeks in the single digits, we certainly would have used the oil heat. Our house is also well insulated. Not sure this would work as well in a drafty farmhouse.


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

If it is jsut to keep the house going for a few days or a week, when your gone, one may consider the unvented propane heaters, (I like the infar red units, seem to me they are the way to go, I have a few rooms in the barn I keep above freezing with them and at comfortable temps when I am using them), 

not the best for contiunal living as there unvented but for when your gone and power outages they have a place, 

unvented propane heaters - Google Search


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## Guest (Apr 26, 2012)

I woul look into ground source heat pumps. They are more expensive up front but claim to provide heat for 1/4 the cost of electric baseboard heat. Open loop systems are way cheaper to install than closed loop systems. You will recoup the higher up front costs fairly quickly with the savings on your electricity bill. They can run backward in the summer to provide air conditioning and can provide hot water.


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

Thanks for all the ideas..We would probably use it mostly for when we leave the homestead for a few days over holidays. Our house has vinyl siding and insulataion done about 10 years ago..so think we are pretty OK..there. Still get the drafts once in a while though. We might also be moving south in a few years so don't want to spend much $$ or have much of it to spend now. I will give the electric company a call and get the plumber in to help us see the cost. Thanks Again..


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## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

If you are just looking for heat to keep the house from freezing then I would go the ceramic heater route. They can put out a great deal of heat and are fairly safe.


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

If you chose electric make sure your wireing is up to date,


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## dancemama (Feb 20, 2009)

i have a delonghi oil filled heater it cost about 80.00 3 or 4 yrs ago it is programable, it has a little circle of teeth things that you push up or push down, when the teeth are down the heater turns off, you can also adjust the temp in several ways. i've talked to people since i got mine that have digitalized ones that are newer than mine. i have used this heater at least 8 mo out of the yr, it is very safe and i have left it on while i've been gone for several weeks at a time


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

When you are gone, the little oilfilled heaters work great, and are inexpensive. Thats what I would do.


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## Newlife (May 27, 2012)

I had a natural gas furnace go out one winter (during a snow storm of course) and compared the costs of a hotel room (cheap) to that of one of those oil-filled electric heaters. The electric oil heater won.

Used a ceramic-fan heater for the bedroom and the oil heater for the main part of the house and kept warm enough.

I agree with the previous post in that it might not be a bad idea to try out a few of the electric oil-filled heaters around the house. Depending on your electric rates, the costs of the initial set up could be pretty low.

The other thing to think about is you mentioned you might sell in a couple of years, so you might also want to consider what a potential buyer would find attractive and see how that weighs into the equation.


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