Re: OT Electric or Gas furnance.

Posted by T_Bone on September 30, 2003 at 19:59:55 from (171.75.11.58):

In Reply to: OT Electric or Gas furnance. posted by Chances R on September 30, 2003 at 16:22:51:

Hi chances r,

From Designing HVAC systems for the past 35yrs, Natural Gas is the cheapest heat if considering store bought fuel.

Wood heat beats that if you don't count your labor. This type of heat is unlike any other type as it's the most satisfiying of all heating types.

Next is a "true" heat pump. I say true as some try to pass off any AC system with back-up electric stip heaters as a heat hump and it's not. A true HP uses the refrigeration cycle for both heating and cooling by using a refrigerant reversing valve. HP are very efficent to 45* then they drop off rapidly. At about 30* then a back-up source needs to be used, ie electric strip heaters or?. However there are ground soruce HP's that bury a coil in the ground or use well water to suck heat out of. They work well and efficent. HP register temps are about 125* slightly cooler than gas at 140*. I will get complaints from people who came from a natural gas units to HP units saying the registers blow cool air.

Never use electric resistance strip heaters for back-up heat. A pure waste of money.

From here you can get a piggy back unit with natural gas for heat and refrigeration for AC. They work very well and the most cost effective.

On the refrigeration side, only choose a AC unit with a scroll compressor. These compressors are almost non-destructable and last a very long time when comparred to other compressor types. Run from any type of radial compressor no matter what it's on.

Next comes the piggy back LP/AC units. Although not as cheap to orperate as natural gas they come in third in cost.

Electric heating of any kind is just plain expensive. A HP is not electric heating/cooling. Electric is resistance heating just like a electric dryer is.

Now when you compare apples with apples you will not use any other figures than BTU's. Alot of salemen talk all kinds of numbers but there's only two you need to be concerend about.
On heating, Cost per therm or 100000btu
On cooling, cost per ton of refeigeration, 12000btu
Add these two numbers together and you get your approx. orperating cost difference between units. There's more too than this but it seperates the sales BS.

You will also see SEER numbers. The higher the number the better.

If they try to use any other numbers you just met a used car saleman!

The last cost study I did is reflected below but keep in mind this was for a specific job and may not reflect your actual oprerating cost numbers but listed as "ball park" figure and only reflected the heating demand:
Natural gas $.34/hr
HP $.44/hr
LP $.85/hr
Electric resistance $2.35/hr

The above numbers was for Phoenix, AZ the most idea weather for a HP. Ground soruce HP's in colder climates will have simular numbers but unit cost becomes a factor thats not included in the above numbers.

T_Bone

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