Electric or Gas

Rick_9

Hi guys, hope this question isn't heresy. My contractor and I are having a good natured arguement about how to heat the water for my new in floor radiant system. The house is 1500sqft on each of two floors. The basement is to be a 6 inch, insulated slab and the first floor is 2 inches of insulated, concrete topping. Final covering is tile with some finished concrete, mostly in the basement. Winters here in the Okanagan valley of BC are moderate with 3 months of temps within 5 degrees C of freezing. Gas at $9/gigajoule is exactly half the cost per Btu of electric at $.065/Kwh (my conversions, no inefficiency assumed). It would seem to me that the lower initial cost and higher efficiency of the electric boiler would have that system ahead and winning for some time. Have I missed some crucial point in my calculations?

Tony Conner

Electric Vs Gas

If you live in a place like you do - where pretty much all electric power is generated by falling water, then electric heat can be pretty competitive with other energy sources.

Flip all energy into common units. Do the math to figure the heating cost over a year, taking eff into account. Then look at the installed costs. How long is the payback on the more expensive system?

If you chose electric, I'd leave the space to allow installation of gas-fired equipment in the future. Nobody can predict what will happen with price and availability of various energy sources years from now. Leave some options open.

Rick_9

Thanks, good advice, especially the ability to switch systems down the line. F