# Which is cheaper, heating with fuel oil, or with electricity?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 4, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319 "2008-07-04T20:06:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319/1 "2008-07-04T20:06:00Z")
I have always assumed that heating my house with electricity would be way more expensive than heating it with heating oil. But I just checked [my oil supplier](http://www.fullers.com/home.php), and the price of heating oil is up to 4.599 per gallon. I then consulted this [fuel comparison calculator](http://www.pelletheat.org/3/residential/compareFuel.cfm/compareFuel.cfm) (my brand new oil furnace is rated at 85% efficiency, and my electricity is .088 per KWH) and discovered that heating with fuel oil at the the current price will cost $39.22 per million BTU’s, while electricity is only $26.38 per million BTU’s.
Could this be right? Will I be better off this winter just buying electric heaters?
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2008, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319/2 "2008-07-06T23:18:58Z")
Put in a geothermal system. It’s electric, but you get over 4 times the heat out of it than you would with a electric resistance system.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319/3 "2008-07-07T00:14:01Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar]
Put in a geothermal system. It’s electric, but you get over 4 times the heat out of it than you would with a electric resistance system.
[/QUOTE]
I’m sure my landlord would appreciate the improvement.
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### Author:  [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319/4 "2008-07-07T00:36:45Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself]
I have always assumed that heating my house with electricity would be way more expensive than heating it with heating oil. But I just checked [my oil supplier](http://www.fullers.com/home.php), and the price of heating oil is up to 4.599 per gallon. I then consulted this [fuel comparison calculator](http://www.pelletheat.org/3/residential/compareFuel.cfm/compareFuel.cfm) (my brand new oil furnace is rated at 85% efficiency, and my electricity is .088 per KWH) and discovered that heating with fuel oil at the the current price will cost $39.22 per million BTU’s, while electricity is only $26.38 per million BTU’s.
Could this be right? Will I be better off this winter just buying electric heaters?
[/QUOTE]
They don’t show the math, but it’s probably right.
If you use electric heaters, you will have local control. In other words, you can heat only the room[s] you want. The downside is that you no longer have a central system so even temperature control and even comfort throughout will be difficult.
On top of that, many of those heaters plugged into 115V wall outlets may be a fire hazard. If you have standard 14ga wire, at 115V you have about 1380 watts or so available _for that entire circuit_. (not just that outlet)
Heating a whole house with multiple electric heaters----depending on the quality of your electrical system and the loads already present-----poses at least the potential for fire hazard.
Proceed with caution.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2008, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-cheaper-heating-with-fuel-oil-or-with-electricity/455319/5 "2008-07-07T00:37:23Z")
I think electric is cheaper now. I don’t know about heating oil, but I am set up with a natural gas fireplace that puts out mega heat, and we opted not to use it last winter and just went with our electric heat pump and a small electric space heater for the basement (where the fireplace and the kids bedrooms are) and we never saw a bill above $180 in a month, and that is for a 2400 sq foot home.
YMMV as always.