Which is cheaper...gas or electric?

[FreshTressa]

For dryers?

For heat?

 

[DisneyForLife]

Electric heat has always been higher than gas but with the natural gas prices rising along with everything else these days it may soon catch up. I would still go with gas over electric though.

 

[ducklite]

My husband did some research on this when we were building this house.

It's more efficient to heat with gas and cool with electric, hence we hav an electric heat pump as we'll cool more than heat in Florida.

Gas dryers are always more efficient, as they get hotter so can dry clothes faster.

And gas hot water heaters are much more efficient.

Anne

 

[golfgal]

It really depends on where you live. Electric here is very innexpensive, but then so is gas so they are about the same price here. Other areas gas is hugely expensive so electric is less expensive.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Probably the biggest variable is where you live, how those utilities are priced in your area.

 

[Towncrier]

We had an electric dryer when we were first married. It didn't do a very good job of drying and, when we replaced it with a gas dryer (which worked so much better), our electric bill dropped by 1/3. That was back when our electric company had a load meter on our house and we were billed based on our peak usage.

Did you know that one of the reasons that natural gas prices are so high is that the electric utilities are burning up million of cubic feet of the stuff to make electricity? Seems that it's less expensive to use portable natural gas fired generators to make electricity than building new powerplants. I suppose that we can't blame the power companies for wanting to keep their costs down, but I miss the good old days of inexpensive natural gas for heating.

 

[Mari annie]

We always had gas, and last year we purchased an electric dryer, very cost efficent for the bargain price we paid for it, it was a floor model.

Around here in Massachusetts electric and gas are head to head, electric dries them quicker I think.

Good luck.

I also dry my clothes on a clothesline outside (the old fashioned way) all Summer long and I have already started doing it, for the smell and the cost!

 

[bicker]

Our natural gas utility just filed papers to put through a 26% decrease. It turns out the run-up in the prices of natural gas was unwarranted, and there is now a glut.

 

[nordkin]

Did you know that one of the reasons that natural gas prices are so high is that the electric utilities are burning up million of cubic feet of the stuff to make electricity? Seems that it's less expensive to use portable natural gas fired generators to make electricity than building new powerplants. I suppose that we can't blame the power companies for wanting to keep their costs down, but I miss the good old days of inexpensive natural gas for heating.

I work for one of those electric utilities, which also happens to own a gas company, and the electric utilities are suffering from the high fuel expenses as well. True they are using natural gas to generate electricity, but this is not the main fuel used. Most electric utilities have built these natural gas fired generators to supplement generation when demand is high. They are not used as the norm. I think it is unfair to say the electric companies are driving up the natural gas prices. The major causes are demand and the loss of so much production due to the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Even after production increased there was damage to the infrastructure of the pipelines to move it to where it is needed the most. Everyone is feeling the pain from the increase in fuel costs and I do not think it is unreasonable to pass along at least some of the cost to the consumer.

 

[PlutoPony]

Ok, this is pretty subjective but I think gas heat FEELS warmer than that from an electric heat pump (and we've had both). Our full coated collie used to sleep on the air vents in the floor summer and winter when we had an all electric house.... no doubt she wouldn't have laid there if the air coming out was really warm in the winter .....