Heating Fuel choices

I read an interesting article about home heating. It seems that many people are concerned about staying warm this winter, while not breaking the bank. We are also looking at ways to improve our bottom line by making smart heating choices. Of course understanding the different fuel types and making a valid comparison is an important part of making an informed decision. Therefore I did a little research.

Here are the major types of heating methods and their unit values. In order to compare fuel costs, each fuel must be converted to some type of energy unit. The most common heating energy unit in this country is the BTU (British Thermal Unit), the fuels are given their equivalent BTUs below:

Note:
Values from the US department of Energy. Wood and corn products are approximate values because of water content and differing densities between different species of wood.

The amount of BTU’s used to heat the building needs to be determined. The easiest way to do this is to look at how much fuel was used last year. For example, if you heated your home with oil and you burned 500 gallons, that means you consumed 500 gallons X 139,000 BTU = 69,500,000 BTU.

Now you can figure out how much the other fuels will cost by dividing the btu fuel unit per/btu values into 69,500,000 BTU. For example, if you want to change your heat source to electricity, you would divide 69,500,000 BTU by 3,413 BTU. That equals 20,369.29 kWh. Here are all of the example results:

Notes:
Most places, natural gas is sold by the “therm.” A therm equals 100 cu/ft.

Coal is sold by the ton, there are 2000 pounds in a ton.

Wood is sold by the cord. Depending on wood type a cord of wood can weigh anywhere from 2,100 to 4,200 pounds depending on the species.

Wood pellets are sold either in 40 pound bags or by the ton.

Corn pellets are sold either in 40 pound bags or by the ton.

This is an example comparison of fuel costs for each type in my area:

Notes:
Coal is plus local delivery charge
Wood is based on 2.5 cords of seasoned hardwood such as oak or maple.

You can plug your own values in to make a similar comparison

This does not take into account the efficiency of the heating appliance. That can vary anywhere from 60 to 95 percent depending on the fuel type and the age of the appliance. This is only a comparison of the energy per dollar of various heating methods.

Then there are the environmental considerations. The cleanest burning fossil fuel is natural gas, next propane, then heating oil. The environmental impact of electrical generation depends on the fuel used at the generating plant. Most plants use coal, followed by natural gas, then nuclear, oil, hydro, wind, etc.

Burning wood releases particulate matter and CO2. The particulate matter can be reduced by using EPA certified appliances. The CO2 that is released into the atmosphere would have been released anyway when the wood material decayed. Wood and corn pellets are made from waste material
such as saw dust and chips from a wood mill. That material is pressed into small pellet form. Often, but not always, some type of binding agent such as oil is used to keep the pellets together.