Confused At What Point Is Electric Heat Cheaper than Oil?

[banana]

Dh and I have been discussing the increase of home heating oil. It is up over $4.00 a gallon here. Although our boiler is old it is efficient according to our service technician. We also use oil to heat our hot water. I was able to lower our consumption down to around 450 gallons for the past year, by supplementing with fireword in our fireplace and a couple of electric space heaters.

We are thinking about putting electric baseboard heaters in each room and possibly converting our hot water over to electric. At what point would it be cheaper to heat with electric compared to oil? I pulled out my last months electric bill and the cost per killowat was 0.985 cents. I believe the more you use the cheaper the rate is. Last summer when we used our central a/c a lot the rate was down to 0.892 cents a killowatt. We are due for a 30% rate hike in 2010. I am sooo confused. Does anyone know where I can find an online calculator to help me figure this all out?

We want to make an educated decision but we are totally lost. Is anyone here considering switching over to electric heat?

[Darlene]

http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php...on_calculator/

Are you sure those are the right electric numbers? Ours cost about 15cents kwa. OT but why do they make these ut bills so hard to read, grr.
To figure out your kwa you need both the delivery and the supply numbers together to get a truer reading. hth

[tammy88]

i have oil for heat and water and i would think electric is a lot cheaper, right now anyways..diesel is over $4 and if you are out and dont have the money you are sol, the electric company will always work with you and you know you have heat and hot water..i need oil right now but i refuse to by any..cost to much..so the money i would have put to that im getting an electric hot water tank, and we will get firewood this winter and my husband should be installing central heat..i hope

good luck!

[Dad_of_4]

If you are installing a new water heater, ook at tankless. From what I have read they are the cheapest. For heat, I would look into a heat pump and wood as emergency backup.