How do I calculate / know which is a cheaper option to run ? Any pointers appreciated.
For example to heat up a 3x4 room by 1C ?
Thanks
How to calculate Gas heating vs Electricity Heating Costs ?
GammaMelb on 19/09/2018 - 13:34
Comments
Thanks ! It's a good place to start.
I did find it strange that with or without gas heating, my numbers from the site show the same for electricity use. I would have expected higher electricity use if there was no gas heating.That "calculator" is simply saying here's how your neighbours are getting ripped off, it offers no calculation.
Given the government is interested in driving up electrictiy prices as high as possible, based on their actions, I have no idea why people come to this site. It's run by people trying to rip you off.
Disclaimer
These estimates are based on an average household in your localised zone.
Purely anecdotal but I've always found heating from reverse cycle AC to not be very effective (basically had to stand in front of the AC unit to feel warm) and expensive to boot while gas heaters would heat the whole house up from a small unit in the lounge room. Interested to see someone do the numbers, potentially gas only seems cheaper because it's not lumped in on the electricity bill.
Just basing on what I get charged prior to discounts and excluding supply costs - averaging $0.3141/kwh for electricity and $0.024/MJ for gas, and assuming that the typical usage is exclusively electricity based heating, using electricity seems cheaper - also assuming that there is usage of electricity for other appliances.
From the website - typical usage for Electricity 958kWh for winter. 18590 MJ gas
I agree. I have gas underfloor ducted heating and it nicely heats up the home very quickly. Installed a reverse cycle unit and tried to use that as the heater last winter and I never quite felt warm and the cost was the same. I prefer feeling warm.
A reverse cycle AC pumps heat, so it requires much less energy than gas which has to create all of the heat itself. Gas used to be really cheap if you had it piped but now we can export it we're being totally done over on the price. Electricity should be much cheaper. Electric ACs have become a heap more efficient over the last 10 years to boot. (They had to completely reset the 'star' scale because the number of stars was getting ridiculous').
Underfloor heating could be more efficient since the heat is being used more effectively.
I feel quit warm with AC but I have it in every room so there's no cold spots. Also I don't have one of those older ACs which for some reason has a minimum fan speed setting that is a hurricane.
I'd be curious about column heaters vs reverse cycle AC
Nothing to be curious about, reverse cycle AC are the winner. Just google it.
Yep, by a mile. The only reason gas is even a discussion point is because you pay differently for it, otherwise there's not a lot more efficient than a heat-pump of some description.
Might be helpful calculator: https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/benchmark
Can compare both gas and electricity, then you get the approx kWh and MJ for each. One you know that, you can check out different pricing of different energy places to see which ones cheaper.