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There's ~100,000 BTUs per therm (as sold in the USA). A therm where we are (Bay Area California) costs roughly $2 USD. We pay ~$0.30 per kWh via electricity.
by tannranger 5y ago
There's ~100,000 BTUs per therm (as sold in the USA). A therm where we are (Bay Area California) costs roughly $2 USD.
We pay ~$0.30 per kWh via electricity.
We can convert a kilowatt hour to BTUs - ~3400 BTU/hr ~= 1 kWh.
Whereas the $2 we pay for a natural gas therm is equivalent to (100000/3400) ~= 29kWh or ~$0.07/kWh.
tldr; leaving out all other conversion inefficiencies, gas is roughly 25% the cost of electricity, for equivalent energy, at least in California (which is a place that would presumably push a bit harder for gas->electricity conversions).
- Kon-Peki 5y agoExcellent, thanks! Now we just need to know how many BTUs are needed to complete a specific cooking task. My main goal is not to question - just to quantify. Is the energy cost of cooking a big enough deal to worry about whether you are using gas or electric? I just looked it up - in my area gas is about 40% the cost of yours and electric is about 30%. So for me, electric is ~3x more expensive rather than 4x. I'd still like to know if that matters :)
- tannranger 5y agoIn general, our natural gas costs are overwhelmingly for heating - house heating in winter, and hot water. Our gas per month expenditure in the middle of summer is perhaps 20% of winter. My guess is that our gas stove costs rarely exceed $10/month, maybe less than that. I would recommend checking your gas bills for mid-winter and comparing to mid-summer. And then take into account any other gas users in your house (clothes dryer? hot water heater>). More likely than not, the vast majority of your gas costs (especially if you live in a place with cold weather!), is similarly going towards heating, not stove..
- ZetaZero 5y agoHere in Georgia, before junk fees: $0.0566 per kWh $1.09 per therm ($0.038 per kWh using your conversion)