heating question: electric vs fuel oil

 

am curious to figure out what the btu output per kwh is;
what the btu output per gallon of fuel (oil) is;
and conclude at what cost (of oil) electricity may be more economical to
use as a heating source vs fuel oil.

lets use $0.10/kwhr as an electic base cost.
use $3.00/gallon as fuel oil cost.

i believe 1 gallon of fuel oil should produce about 90000 btu,
bringing the cost to about 0.00333 cents/btu.

would like some comments on electric cost, as well as is the
above assumption of 90000 btu/gallon.

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

One kWh of heat contains 3,412 BTUs.  At $0.10 per kWh, one million
BTUs of electric heat costs $29.30.

One U.S. gallon of #2 fuel oil contains approximately 139,000 BTUs.
Once you take into consideration conversion losses, your net heat gain
may be in the order of 114,000 BTU/gallon (e.g., an AFUE rating of 82
per cent).  For an older heating system operating at a seasonal
efficiency of 65 per cent, you could very well be looking at 90,000
BTU/gallon (net).

Assuming 82 per cent boiler/furnace efficiency, at $3.00 per gallon,
one million BTUs of oil heat costs $26.32.  At 65 per cent operating
efficiency, you would be paying approximately $33.20 for this same
amount of heat.

The tipping point for these respective fuel costs appears to be 74 per
cent.  Above 74 per cent efficiency, an oil-fired boiler or furnace
would be cheaper to operate; as you drop below 74 per cent,
electricity holds the advantage.

An air-source heat pump with a seasonal COP of 2.5 (meaning that for
every kWh you feed it, it provides you with 2.5 kWh of heat in return)
would be more economical than either of these two options.  In this
case, those one million BTUs would cost you $11.72.

A typical new home here in Nova Scotia might require 50 million BTUs
of heat per year.  If it were heated with electric baseboard heaters,
the homeowner would expect to pay approximately $1,465.00/year.  With
the above mentioned heat pump, this heating bill would be $586.00.

Hope this provides you with the information you need.

Cheers,
Paul

On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 03:24:33 GMT, cri-tter@verizon.net wrote:

 


Paul M. Eldridge wrote:

Nice analysis.

 



cri-tter@verizon.net wrote:


Google.


Google.


You know about maths ?


Very unwise. Do you think those numbers will stay that way for long ?



Google.


Google.

Graham