![]() ![]() It also said that its expenditure projections represent all uses for each heating fuel. “For example, heat pumps are more efficient than electric resistance heating.” ![]() “Total expenditures will vary from our forecasts in this outlook depending on the efficiency of the equipment, along with housing characteristics and geography,” it says. The federal report acknowledges the difference in fuel costs for heat pumps and electric resistance heaters. But electricity has the widest range of uses in US homes, said Kanj. Other uses of the same fuel are also included in the agency’s gas, oil and propane customers’ projections – gas projections, for instance, also include fuel usage for stoves. That means heat pumps, championed as the best option for the planet, will probably cost much less to operate than the $1,063 that the Energy Information Agency estimated for electric heating in its winter outlook report.Īnother issue, Rewiring America says, is that the agency includes all uses of each fuel in its cost estimates, meaning cost projections for electricity customers include energy used to power other electric appliances such as refrigerators and electronics. Because they transfer heat rather than generate it, heat pumps warm homes very efficiently, using half as much energy as electric resistance heaters, according to the Department of Energy, and two to three times less energy than oil- and gas-powered heaters, according to recent research. “It’s like averaging the top speed of a Power Wheels and a Tesla.”Įlectric heat pumps, which are installed outside buildings and can both heat and cool homes, push warm air out of the home in the summer and draw it inside during the winter. “Both run on electricity, but they’re fundamentally different machines,” said Wael Kanj, a research associate at Rewiring America. This year, it says heating-oil customers will face the steepest costs, at $1,856 followed by propane users, at $1,337 electricity users, at $1,063 and finally gas users, at just $605.īut that number doesn’t distinguish between older electric-resistance appliances, such as electric baseboard heaters and electric space heaters – which are much more expensive to run – and highly efficient electric heat pumps. But it’s highly misleading because it fails to address the efficiency of new technologies and the widespread uses of electricity in US homes, according to the pro-electrification group Rewiring America.Įach year, the federal Energy Information Agency publishes a winter fuels outlook, forecasting how much households using different fuels will pay for heat from November through March. The claim, based on new federal data, may spark concern among those considering ditching their fossil fuel-based heating systems. ![]()
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