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QUESTION:Most comparisons of natural gas furnaces with earth energy systems or
ground source heat pumps do it only on the basis of using natural gas
or not using it.
Earth Energy systems do not use any fossil fuel, just electricity.
Natural gas furnaces use both a fossil fuel and electricity. But how
much electricity does a natural gas furnace use during a heating
season? These devices are hard wired into your house electrical panel
and their electrical energy usage is incorporated in the meter reading
on the outside of your house.
Does anyone know if there is a standardized measure of "output energy
required to function over electrical energy input" created for each
model of natural gas
furnace? I know the actual output/input ratio will vary with several
other heating-related variables, such as number and type of fans in
the furnace, climate, insulation and air tightness of house etc.
In other words my high efficiency natural gas furnace contributes to
my electrical bill but is it 10%, 20% or 35% etc of my annual
electrical bill.
For any response I need to know the calculations involved or the
empirical basis which I can then go and examine.
ANSWER: For practical purposes, ignore any electricity used by
ignition, control circuitry, thermostats, etc. The amount consumed is
so small, it's irrelevant - probably on the order of < 0.1 % of your
electric bill.
The indoor fans do not effectively change due to heat source,
and thus remain constant as re : energy consumption. IE, the heat
load of the building determines required CFM which determines required
fan size which determines fan power consumption, loosely put.
So - fan wattage* run time is the only factor to be evalutated
for the question of 'how much electricity does a gas furnace use ?'.
You can derive your costs from this.
If you have other heat sources, then the usage of those
sources ( strip heat, heat pump, etc ) need to be figured separately.
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