Is gas cheaper than electricity ?
Electricity and gas costs are both rising – and since a large percentage of electricity in the US is generated from fossil fuels, both are likely to keep on getting more expensive. When you heat with a closed-in gas fireplace, up to 80% of the energy in the burning gases can go towards heating your room (depending on how efficient your fireplace is). An open fireplace will be much less efficient; some open fireplaces are actually a net energy drain on your house because they draw warm air from the home up the chimney, pulling cool air in through cracks and openings in windows, doors, walls, attics, and so on. When you heat with electricity produced from fossil fuels, the maximum efficiency at the power plant is about 35% (that’s the theoretical maximum efficiency of a heat generator) and there are transmission losses as well, so even though electric heaters are 100% efficient at converting electricity into heat, you’re really only getting 30% efficiency from start to end of the cycle.
