Electric vs. gas heat?

[TXJack]

I have the option to either go gas or electric with my heat. What would yall recommend?

I live in Houston, Texas and as most know we rarely use heat down here.

[Juleous]

Heat pump! The only way to go these days, I personally have a 90+% furnace and a 14 seer AC system and I am seriously thinking about changing it out to an all electric heat pump with back-up electric in the fan coil. The new heat pump systems are very cool these days. I want to stop burning fossil fuels.

[gary_g]

I have the option to either go gas or electric with my heat. What would yall recommend?

I live in Houston, Texas and as most know we rarely use heat down here.

What are yall's delivered price of electricity (in cents per kw-hr)?

What are yall's delivered price of natural gas (in $ per therm or $ per ccf)?

[beenthere]

Yep, check your gas and electric rate first, before making that decision.

[amd]

Gas is superior to electric resistance heat.

In mild climates with reasonable electric rates, heatpumps are cheaper to operate then gas furnaces.

Dual fuel offers the best of both, but it's an overkill in the south.

[WhoIsThat?]

100 cubic feet of natural gas burned @ 100% efficiency = 29 kwh of elec heat = 8.4 kwh of heat pump heat (COP = 3.5) = 4.2 kwh of heat pump heat (COP = 6.9).

[SarahW]

Gas furnace.

[chambery1]

Heat pump! The only way to go these days, I personally have a 90+% furnace and a 14 seer AC system and I am seriously thinking about changing it out to an all electric heat pump with back-up electric in the fan coil. The new heat pump systems are very cool these days. I want to stop burning fossil fuels.

You are still burning fossil fuels when you use electricity, although some of your electricity might be generated by non-fossil fuel inputs such as nuke, wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelect, etc.

In the good ol' USA, we still use fossil fuels and especially coal for the vast majority of our electricity generation.

However, the more we use heat pumps and the less we use gas and oil furnaces, the less fossil fuel we do burn in total.

[lentz]

Heat Pump--Check with your neighbors that have a house about the same size and are using a Heat Pump. This will give you an idea how they like it and what it cost to run year round. There are systems that will not turn on the fan in the winter time until the indoor coil is warm. This is one draw back for the heat pump--Blowing room temperture air when it first comes on during the heating season.