With such cold temperatures sticking around Florida, I got to thinking, how much cheaper would it be to have natural gas to warm up the house versus electricity.  Energy used to heat the house probably takes up the largest percentage of the electric bill (that is during cold times). Other big energy guzzlers like the water heater, clothes dryer, the oven can be powered by the natural gas as well. For my number crunching, I got most of the data from Energy Information Administration website.

National average for electricity in 2009 was 10.4 cents per one kilowatt-hour and 1.29 cents per one Therm of gas. Since one kilowatt-hour is equal to 3.412 therms, the electricity cost is 3.05 cents per Therm. So looks like the electricity was almost 2 ½ times more expensive than the natural gas.

According to Energy Information Administration (EIA), a US household uses on average 70 thousand cubic feet (CCF) of natural gas per year. This accounts to roughly 72,400 Therms per year. Doing the math using the average cost of gas for 2009, it accounts to $934 per year. The same amount of energy would cost $2,207 in electric power. Thus giving the yearly savings of $1,273 using natural gas versus electricity.

EIA is breaking down the numbers for natural gas usage into four US regions, Northeast, Midwest, South and West.  The highest natural gas usage was reported by the Midwest, 92 thousand CCF per household. The cost difference between the natural gas and electricity in this case is $1,664 per year per household in Midwest. The least usage of natural gas was reported on the West, 53 thousand CCF per household. The cost difference between natural gas and electricity in this case is $967 per year.

Unfortunately my neighborhood doesn’t have a gas line, but I think it might be worth the investment if one were to stick around their home for a few years.