Heating Systems, and the choice of "Homo Economicus"

At the beginning of winter or the end of summer you often hear a discussion about the economics of a gas or an electrical heater. The question is which one to take in order to stay both warm and in the best possible financial shape. This question is in fact not so difficult to answer.

Energy Conversion

When we look into the mechanics of both possibilities, we see that the common denominator is that we need to change one form of energy into another. And converting energy means losing energy. Not in an absolute sense because we still didn't figure out how to let something really disappear. Captain Kirk can be we don't.

Where we lose is that during a conversion not all energy takes the shape we intended.

Where do we lose money?

The expense we face are therefore the losses that occur in energy conversion A nice illustration is our conventional light bulb. This technological marvel from Thomas Edison works at an efficiency rate of about 5%. Meaning that only 5% of the energy is actually usable as light. The rest is lost in conversion.

Armed with this knowledge we return to our heater. The physics behind the light bulb and the heater are in fact the same. The trick we use to generate heat is push a lot of electrons through a very narrow path. The wire or path will get hot and glow. Therefore we are losing energy there. In our electric heater the efficiency is about 85 - 90%

The same holds true for our gas heater, by burning natural gas to generate radiation heat we will lose energy in the form of light. To be more specific, if we use a normal gas heating device the conversion will be about 70 - 85% .

But before we jump to the conclusion that there is not much difference, we forgot that in order to get electricity we needed energy to produce it. Natural Gas converts at about 33% to electricity. This is where it gets ugly.

A quick breakdown of the energy facts would read:

Electrical Heater Natural Gas to Electricity Loss 65% - 75%

Electricity to Heat Loss 15% - 30%

The quick minded reader could say, hey the worst case scenario means a loss greater than 100% . This hub has given us the formula for anti-matter. Nope, sorry. These are relative figures.

Let me explain, say we have 100 units of natural gas to start with. After converting that to electricity we have 25 units of energy left. Now we want to get warm and cozy so we use our heater and lose 30%. of the 25 we had left.

Conclusion if we use an electrical heater we need 100 units of energy taken from natural gas to produce 17,5 energy units in the form of heat.

Gas Heater Natural Gas to Heat Loss 30%

For the Gas heater it looks better when we start with 100 energy units we end up with 70 energy units heat.

The result is rather eye opening perhaps but our gas heater wins the contest by far.

With these kind of differences I would not put great emphasis on initial costs. But for others convenience is perhaps the more important factor.

But is the Economical Factor a good predictor?

A gas heater breathes toxic fumes when converting energy, so we want ventilation to get rid of them. And it also needs a solid connection to a gas cylinder or pipe. This is to say that we do have to spend money on installation. Money well spend I think. But no doubt about it the electric heater is more convenient, place it where ever you want, plug it in and ready. Heat is yours.

Credit Cards and Heaters

The electric heater reminds me a little of a credit card. Convenient but when you use it terribly expensive.