Would you say that natural gas is the cheapest option for heating? (Seattle: sales, 2014)

[mamainfl]

I have heard that oil heating would be the most expensive. So, would natural gas be the cheapest? If not, what would be the least expensive? A heat pump?

[mkarch]

Ductless or geothermal heat pump.

However if natural gas is an option, it's cheap enough that it would take years to make up for the additional up front cost of a heat pump.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by mamainfl

I have heard that oil heating would be the most expensive. So, would natural gas be the cheapest? If not, what would be the least expensive? A heat pump?

Electricity is cheaper than natural gas in the Seattle area. Cheap hydroelectric and a publicly-owned utility make it so.

[Hemlock140]

Geothermal may cost $30,000+ to install, a friend did it. You have to live there a long time to get that back. Heat pumps are OK, but cannot keep up on those days/weeks when it gets below 20F and the cooling is not all that necessary in our mild summers. Natural gas heat and a window AC or two is the most cost effective. Electricity is cheap here but the furnaces are less efficient and end up costing you more to heat a home.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Geothermal may cost $30,000+ to install, a friend did it. You have to live there a long time to get that back. Heat pumps are OK, but cannot keep up on those days/weeks when it gets below 20F and the cooling is not all that necessary in our mild summers. Natural gas heat and a window AC or two is the most cost effective. Electricity is cheap here but the furnaces are less efficient and end up costing you more to heat a home.

What furnaces? Most people with electric heat have baseboard heat.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Heat pumps are OK, but cannot keep up on those days/weeks when it gets below 20F

We've had a grand total of 0 days of 20F temperatures since we bought a house in Seattle 2.5 years ago. A few nights have dropped into that range. Newer heat pumps can easily handle an occasional dip into the 20's or teens. Before we decided to convert to a heat pump, I asked a number of neighbors how often they needed aux heat since installing a heat pump. Nobody ever needed it.

Out in the higher elevation wilderness areas where people have only recently settled, conditions may be harsher. Understandably that's one of the reasons people chose not to live there until recently.

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

What furnaces? Most people with electric heat have baseboard heat.

Forced air electric was very common in the Seattle suburbs built in the 60's, 70's and 80's. My parents first 3 houses all had electric central forced air heating when built.

[jm31828]

Natural Gas is definitely the cheapest around here. Even though we have some of the lower electric rates in the country, it still costs more to heat a home using electric than it does with natural gas. Same goes with water heaters- our old house had a natural gas water heater and our new one has an electric one- and even though it's a super high efficiency one, it still costs far more using it than our natural gas one at the old house.

[CrazyDonkey]

I believe electricity in Seattle (City Light) is cheaper than natural gas. In Seattle, electricity prices are lower than the national average, while natural gas prices are higher than the national average:

Average Energy Prices, Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, October 2014 : Western Information Office : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

[thecoalman]

Based on the article above costs per million BTU...

The heat pump is special case because the efficiency drops as it gets colder, I've only included what you can expect during ideal conditions during warmer weather in the high 50's/60's. The reason it exceeds 100% is because they use standard electric heating as the baseline. If you do a search for heat pump calculators they usually have variable for your specific region which can take into account the average temperature so you can use a more realistic efficiency.

Electric Heat Pump @$0.095/kWh & 280%efficiency = $09.94

Electric Standard Baseboard @$0.095/kWh & 100%efficiency = $27.84

Natural Gas @$1.18/Therm & 90%efficiency = $13.11

[StealthRabbit]

I consider solar the cheapest heating option in we_tern PNW.

Best to 'do-it-yourself' passive or active solar, or suffer $30k hammering as per Hemlock's friend.

I install my ground source for free... (mistakenly called geothermal (which is old faithful / Idaho, and southern OR natural hot springs and hot earth vents ).
I have my own dozers and excavators... which you too can rent for $500/ day.


I build using annualized solar... (Using summer heat (usually attic space) to supply winter heat.) There are some great projects in Spokane area using annualized solar (and much of Japan).

Been doing solar (for free) since 1970's... very simple, very cheap, very comfortable.
forget the incentives and slimey sales people that mention them. (run from those guys.. they destroyed solar in the 1970's too... Government gets involved, prices skyrocket (just like healthcare)).

Solar is fun... take a winter trip to Walla Walla and learn more http://www.sustainablelivingcenter.com/
http://www.solarwashington.org/

WA does not produce natural gas, so it is not a great source to rely on.
While I lived in WY and Colorado, we produced natural gas, so it was a great BTU and transportation resource. My Company had their own NG wells on site. (We also had plug-in parking in 1974 at every North America site)

burn cooking oil ..
50 mpg since 1976... no OPEC or dinosaurs required. Where have you been?