Why is electric heat so expensive?
Why is electric heat so expensive?
On average in 2019, it took an average of …
10,551 BTU or 3.1 kW of coal or 7,732 BTU or 2.3 kW of natural gas
To produce 1 kilowatt of electricity, which is equal to 3,412 BTU.
How much does your 120 volt plug-in electric heater in your house use when it’s on? It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a $12 Walmart heater fan, or a $300 radiant heater in a fancy wood cabinet. All are same energy efficiency – when you apply resistance to electricity, 100% becomes heat, including the heat produced by the fan coils or indicator lights.
All 120-volt heaters are 1.5 kW or 5,118 BTU, because 120-volt wall outlets can only supply 12.5 amp constantly. In theory, you could make a space heater smaller then 1,500 watts but nobody does because electric coils are cheap to manufacture, and when you are warm, the thermostat just shuts off.
So every hour a heater heater is operating, it’s 1.5 kWh.
1 Comment
Some newer houses have 20 amp outlets, which you could plug in a 20 amp heater into with a special plug. But those heaters aren’t common, because while 1.92 kW only gets you 6,551 BTU — only about 20% more heat. If you are going to go through the effort, you might as well tap both sides of split phase and get 20 amp at 240 volt, to get roughly 15k btu.