Mr. Electricity is your guide to saving energy in your home.
We're recommended by the government of Berks County, PA.
Related sites:
Watt Watt. News about efficiency and conservation, written by readers of the site.
Home Power Magazine. All about renewable energy for the home.
Thin House. Blog about a family committed to cutting its energy use by 80%.
No-Impact Man. Blog about a family striving to have no net impact. (i.e., What little they use, they offset.) Inspirational.
Off-Grid. News and resources about living without being connected to a utility company.
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If you like this site, you might also like some of my
other sites:
Battery
Guide
Which battery is best? We cover
rechargeable and alkaline batteries to show you what's hot,
what's not, and the best way to charge them. (visit
now)
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The
Military Budget as Cookies
This excellent animation from TrueMajority shows in
graphic detail (using Oreo cookies) how ridiculously, large
the military budget is, and how we could solve many domestic
problems with a modest 12% cut. A must-see. (watch
it now)
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Natural Gas vs. Electric
appliances
Electric
vs. gas costs in
general
The answer to the
question of whether gas is
cheaper than electric
depends on the cost of gas
and electricity in your
area. It varies widely
from state to state, and even
within states -- and even
significantly throughout the
year. The examples I give
below are just that:
examples. Your mileage
may vary.
Of course, the best way to
find your exact cost of energy
is to look at your utility
bill or check your utility
company's website. In the
examples below we'll use the
U.S. average
cost of electricity and
average cost of gas from
spring 2006.
There are other
considerations for choosing
one or the other besides cost.
For example, with gas your
house is more
likely to explode. And the
byproducts of gas combustion
from ovens and heating are
unhealthy to breathe, and can
actually kill pet birds.
Electric
vs. gas ovens/stoves
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Gas
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Electric
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Model
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Kenmore 30",
#73052
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Kenmore 30",
#93052
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Price
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$350
|
$360
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Avg. fuel
price
|
0.00147¢/BTU
($1.47/therm)
|
12¢/kWh
|
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Burner
|
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Energy use (1
hour)
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9,000
BTU
|
2,500
watt-hours
|
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Yearly cost
(2
burners x 10
mins./day
ea.)
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$16.11
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$36.53
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Oven
|
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Energy use (1
hour)
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18,000
BTU
+ 350
watt-hours
|
2000
watt-hours
|
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Yearly cost
(2
hours/week)
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$31.89
($27.52
+
$4.37)
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$24.96
|
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Burner
+ Oven
together
|
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Total YEARLY
cost
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$48.00
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$61.49
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Prices
from Sears.com in
July 2006. Fuel rates
are U.S. national
averages in August
2009; see more on
electricity
prices
and gas
prices.
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What this means is that
under normal conditions you
won't save much money by
cooking with gas vs.
electric. And gas has
other big downsides, such as
that gas combustion is
unhealthy to breathe, and
gas-based homes are way more
likely to accidentally explode
accidentally and/or burn right
down to the ground.
See our full
report on energy used by
cooking.
Electric
vs. gas clothes
dryers
|
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Electric
|
Gas
|
|
Energy
used
|
3.3
kWh
|
0.22 therm
for heat, +
0.21 kWh to spin the
drum
|
|
Energy
rate
|
12¢/kWh
|
$1.47/therm
(32¢)
12¢/kWh
(3¢)
|
|
Cost per
load
(assumes
45 minutes per
load)
|
$0.36
|
$0.35
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The
table uses
average energy
rates; use your
actual energy
rate for a valid
comparison.
Electric
dryers. Electric
use figure from the
Multi-housing
Laundry
Association
(MLA). Note that you
can't use the label
on an electric dryer
to figure the amount
of energy used,
because the heating
element isn't on the
whole time during the
drying
cycle.
Gas
dryers: Electric
component from my own
measurement of a
standard-size Kenmore
gas dryer for a
45-minute cycle. Note
that the
Multi-housing
Laundry
Association
(MLA) gives a higher
figure, 0.5 kWh,
which results in a
3¢ difference
per load.
In my
test, the load
dropped from 325
watts at the start to
260 by the end of the
cycle, because as the
clothes got drier
they got lighter and
so it took less
energy to spin the
drum. Gas cost per
load from
Lawrence
Berkeley
Labs.
MLA gives 0.17 therm
for a gas dryer
cycle.
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See our full report on
energy
used by clothes
dryers.
Electric
vs. gas heat
I don't have
comparison tables for electric
vs. gas heat specifically, but
I do have quite a bit of info
about saving
energy on heating.
Cost
of Natural Gas
In August 2009 the
national average price of
residential gas was $15.15
Mcf, or
$1.47/therm.(source)
This is the figure we'll use
throughout the site, although
the price could be very
different in your area, and
can change rapidly in a short
period of time.
Gas is measured in therms,
Mcf, or BTU. Therms are used
on customers' gas bills, and
Mcf is used in the industry
and financial markets.
- Mcf = thousand
cubic feet, or 10.31
therms
- BTU = British
thermal unit = 1/100,000
therm (1 therm=100,000 BTU)
(Source:
American
Gas
Assoc.)
Some gas bills measure the
gas in cubic meters instead of
therms. One therm is 2.75
cubic meters, and 1 cubic
meter is 0.36 therms.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy
shows historical prices for
gas in both table
and chart
form.
Here's the average price
of residential natural gas in
2003 by state, in dollars per
MCF. Don't assume the
state rates are accurate for
you, because rates vary even
within a state.
U.S. Dept
of
Energy
Cost of
Electricity
The average cost of
residential electricity was
12¢/kWh
in the U.S. in August 2009.
The average household used 920
kWh/mo. in 2006 and would pay
$110.40 for it at the
12¢/kWh average rate.
(Dept.
of
Energy)
Like gas, the cost of
electricity varies by
location. Don't assume the
state rates are accurate for
you, because rates vary even
within a state.
We have more info
about electric costs on our
cost of
electricity page.
Comparing
the operating cost of electric
vs. gas appliances
Above we provide
tables comparing the cost of
gas and electric appliances,
but you may wish to do your
own comparison. To make such a
comparison you'll need to
know:
- The price of
electricity in kWh.
- The amount of
electricity used in
kWh.
- The price of gas in
therms.
- The amount of gas used
in therms.
#1 and #3 are easy to find,
just look at your bill. For
electricity, make sure you add
all the kWh costs for
electricity, since some
utility companies have
separate charges for delivery
and fuel. (More
on electrical
charges.)
#2 is also pretty easy,
using the tables and methods
described on this site. For
starters, here's our page of
electricity
used by typical
appliances, and how
to measure electrical
use.
#4 is usually the hardest,
because the amount of gas used
by appliances for a given task
or amount of time is usually
not so easy to find. But I'll
make it easy by listing those
figures for you now, and throw
in the electric version for
comparison:
|
Appliance
|
Therms
per hour
|
kWh
per hour
|
|
Range pilot
light
|
0.0035
|
n/a
|
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Range burner,
small
|
0.05
|
0.6
|
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Range burner,
large
|
0.09
|
1.0
|
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Oven
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0.25
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2.0
|
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Clothes Dryer
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0.23
|
5.4
|
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Water Heater pilot
light
|
0.0075
|
n/a
|
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From
Wisconsin
Public
Service,
Okaloosa
Gas,
and the Sears
catalog. 1 therm =
100,000
BTU
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