Lumping resistive-only heat and heat pump heat together seems nearly criminal.
Yeah my heat pump runs at ~2kwh but if the heat strips come on it’s another 10kw.
From a technical perspective, this is why a colder than average winter will affect (air-source) electric heat pumps more than resistance or fuel sourced heat. As the outside temps go down, the efficiency decreases in a heat pump, so the curve is non-linear. For electric resistance and fuels, the outdoor temperature has a near zero effect, making the increase in cost linear.
Not that it matters too much. Electricity costs in most of the US are relatively stable whereas fuel costs can swing by a factor of five or more from year to year ($2/MMBTU to over $12/MMBTU in the last decade). Oil doesn’t play much into heating anymore, but it can also swing by more than a factor of two (From a low of $2/gal to over $5/gal in the last decade). Electric, though, is up by 25% over the last decade (on average) and varies by less than a a couple percent from year to year, slowly increasing at around a 2% average rate.
but your strips only need to come on when it’s very cold out. in almost all climates that’s only the very coldest days, and in some places like LA it’s never too cold
That’s my point, my heat pump uses on avg 1/5th the energy of my heat strips. Comparing the two is at best disingenuous.
Yeah. Been a standard for gas industry propaganda for a while
No surprise. Not a physicist, but I would think moving electrons back and forth through wires would be more efficient than pumping gas molecules through pipes, burning it, and losing heat due to venting the exhaust. Safer too. No risk of explosion or CO poisoning. Breakers and fuses cause electricity to fail safe(er) than gas.
The 120/240 going to residences isn’t necessarily fatal to humans. Fires are better than explosions and poison gas. Breakers protect against shorts causing both dangerous conditions. They also protect from fires by limiting the current draw through lines.
I think the idea is that you get more efficient heating out of burning Natural Gas -> Electricity -> Heat Pump than just burning the natural gas for heat.
Even better if you skip the natural gas -> electricity part and use Nuclear/Hydro/Solar/Wind
Way less than reports say, report says
Basically a US agency tries to forecast how much the average american will spend on various utilities over the winter broken down by all gas appliances and heat, all electric appliances and heat, all fuel oil heating, etc. Thr just of the article is that it doesn’t, but probably should, differentiate between resistive heating and heat pumps, and since most modern heat pumps give you three to four times the heat per watt that kind of makes a big difference.
It also predicts your utility bill for a given tech if you use a given type of energy, not your energy useage. Ergo your fridge and lights are counted in that perdiction if you use electric but not if you use gas. Potentally useful info if used as a forecast for what you have, but not intended to compare apples to apples.
