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Oil Heat vs. Electric Heat

It takes almost 41 kwH of electricity to provide the same amount of BTUs as a gallon of home heating oil.

Oil provides 138,690 BTU per gallon

Electricity provides 3,412 BTU per kwH

138,690 divided by 3,412 equals 40.65 kwH

If a kwH of electricity costs 20 cents - and in some places it's more - that means that it would cost a consumer about $8.20 to provide the same amount of heat as a gallon of home heating oil!

And things aren't going to get any better, particularly in the Northeast:

Electricity supply prices have risen 55 percent since 1990 in the Northeast.

The region relies on natural gas for 40 percent of its power generation, and many analysts are predicting that natural gas prices will increase sharply this year.

More than three-quarters of the new power plants on the drawing board are gas-fired.

The bottom line is, the consumer who heats with electricity will spend thousands of dollars more each winter than the consumer who heats with oil.

How to Compare the Cost of Home Heating Fuels

A Precise Comparison of Costs Puts Oilheat Clearly Ahead of Electricity

One way to compare the cost of home heating fuels is to compare their respective costs per million BTU.

There are one million BTU in a therm of natural gas. Here's how to calculate the cost of some home heating fuels per million BTU.

Home Heating Oil		Electricity

According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), a gallon of home heating oil generates 138,690 BTU when burned at 100 percent efficiency.* To figure the cost per million BTU, divide 1,000,000 by 138,690, which will yield the number of gallons it will take to generate one million BTU. To calculate the cost, multiply the number of gallons by the cost of a gallon of home heating oil. For example, if home heating oil costs $3.50 per gallon, the calculation to figure the cost per million BTU would look like this: (1,000,000/138,690) x $3.50 7.21 x 3.50 = $25.24 So, if home heating oil costs $3.50 per gallon, the cost per million BTU is $25.24.		According to the EIA, one kilowatt hour (kwH) of electricity generates 3,412 BTU. To figure the cost per million BTU, divide 1,000,000 by 3,412, which will yield the number of kwH it will take to generate one million BTU. To calculate the cost, multiply the number of kwH by the cost per kwH. For example, if electricity costs 15 cents per kwH, the calculation to figure the cost per million BTU would look like this: (1,000,000/3,412) x $0.15 293.1 x .15 = $43.96 So, if electricity costs 15 cents per kwH, the cost per million BTU is $43.96.