# Kerosene vs. Natural Gas

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerosene-vs-natural-gas/36086>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 7, 2000, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerosene-vs-natural-gas/36086 "2000-10-07T19:18:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2000, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerosene-vs-natural-gas/36086/1 "2000-10-07T19:18:20Z")

</div>

With NG prices expected to increase 15-40% this winter, I was concidering doing the majority of the heating w/ a kerosene heater.  
Looking over the NG bill, I see that the price gets lower the more I use. I will always use some for cooking and drying. If I heat solely by kero. it might mean that I will never get any NG at the discounted rate.  
I would like to know which would cost less. I know this dep[ends on the price of the 2 and the efficency of the 2 heaters, but is one far and away more costly?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerosene-vs-natural-gas/36086/2 "2000-10-08T01:36:02Z")

</div>

A word of caution: Be _very_ careful with kerosene heaters. Personally I would never use any combustion system that was not vented outdoors. You can find Kerosene heaters that are vented outdoors but I do not think they would be a solution for a temporary thing which seems to be what you are looking for.

before I used a non-vented kerosene heater, I would try to save by lowering the temperature or heating only parts of the house.