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QUESTION:There has been a gas furnace in the house for 27 years and it may soon
need to be replaced. I've tossed around the idea of an electric furnace
because it may be safer and simply because electricity is the cheaper of
the two utilities.
My question is... has anyone had any bad experiences with an electric
furnace or know why I may want to stick with gas?
ANSWER: Where do you live that electric is cheaper? Maaaaaybe the Pacific
Northwest, but nowhere else that I can think of.
An "electric furnace" is either a resistance heater or a heat pump. The
resistance heater is more expensive to operate by maybe a factor of two
(depending on the weather) but is much cheaper to install and is about
as trouble-free as anything can be. The heat pump is cheaper to operate
but more expensive to install and more likely to require maintenance.
If natural gas is available it is almost certainly cheaper to operate
than electric. Oil and propane are of course a bit pricier, but they
still would usually beat electric in terms of total operating cost.
The modern gas furnace is really quite safe, so safety shouldn't be a
concern.
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