Electric Heat Cheap - no way they say! Well here are some numbers that surprised me when helping a young entrepreneur develop his business plan to save homeowners with electric baseboard heat from the poor house. Ontario’s cost of electricity has doubled over the past 10 years and will continue to grow, particularly if nuclear energy’s share of the generation mix goes beyond 50%

Based on September 2011 unit cost of energy here is the top to bottom ranking of heating costs for a therm or 100,000 BTU’s by energy and technology.

Technology comes to the rescue and does make electricity with current technology a good heating alternative if your home does not have ducts and/or access to a natural gas line!

Bob Fisher

This summer I turned off the circulating electric fan motor on my gas furnace to CONSERVE energy, just like the ads say. But the house smelled stale and the basement musty. Turned on the furnace fan and in a few hours back to normal.

Using the hydro Smart Meter web site, I looked at my hourly/daily/peak/off peak electrical load. The furnace motor uses about half a kilowatt to operate. At the current hydro delivered HST included cost of some 15 cents per kWh, running the fan cost about $650 per year. Plus Toronto Hydro have just asked for another rate increase!

An new technology ECM motor in my not so old  furnace would save about 75 % or almost $500. New motors should cost about $700 installed - an ROI of 70%+ or 16 months to get my money back. A better investment than my stocks and bonds.

Do you know a good installer?

By the way if 2 M Ontario homes did this we would save several new nuclear reactors which are planned to cost billions of $.

Bob Fisher