Home Ownership The efficiency of your home heating system depends on its state of repair and design. Efficiency is a measure of how much of the energy in the fuel is actually available for heating. For instance, a 65 per cent efficient furnace loses 35 out of every 100 heat units up the chimney. In contrast, electrical appliances waste no heat because they are 100 per cent efficient. Having your furnace tested by your fuel supplier is one way to find out its exact efficiency. Otherwise, rely on the most conservative figures.

To compare one heating system with another, you need a base measurement that applies to every type of fuel. For simplicity, we've converted the heat-Heating Values Imperialing value of all the fuels to megajoules (MJ). (One mega-joule is one million joules, a unit of energy. If you're used to British thermal units (Btu) as the measurement of energy, you'll appreciate knowing that it takes about 1000 M J to make one Btu. The Btu is a much larger unit of energy. One Btu equals 0.001055 MJ).

Ignoring, for the moment, the cost of purchase, maintenance and interest, you can isolate the cost of changing fuels alone. First calculate the cost of staying with your existing system. Multiply last year's energy consumption by the current price of fuel.




Page 1 2 3
Home > Home Ownership > Energy Economics > Home Heating Costs Compared

December 4, 2008