elec heat is cheap? huh?

[clare]

Definitely not necessarilly true. Many places in North America Electric heat can compete TODAY with fossil fuels and win.

[clare]

A good ground source heat pump can be something like 140% efficient. When it gets too cold, which is REAL cold, resistive electric heat can take over - and for the short amount of time it is needed in the average season, it does not hurt the heating budget terribly bad.

[trader4]

It would help if people would be clear about what they mean by electric heat, ie do you mean resistance heat or are you including heat pump systems? I think when most people use the term electric heat, they mean resistance heat.

[clare]

Even resistance heat can, and does, compete favourably with propane and oil in some areas.

[trader4]

Yeah, I don't doubt that it does in SOME special areas. But when you say MANY, then I think most of us would disagree.

[clare]

How many does it take to be many? More than a few. How about 10 or

15? But then, how big IS an area?

I think I'm still safe to say many. Definitely not most, or majority.

[Pete C.]

The big problem with all these type of articles is that they typically don't properly define what type of "electric" heat, since there are several types with quite different overall efficiencies. There is a big difference in operating cost between electric resistive heat vs. electric heat pump (air or ground source).