Natural gas offers a cost advantage over other heating sources, says an AGA study
Having just braved a bone-chilling polar vortex this past winter that set a single-day record for total U.S. natural gas demand, American consumers now have important information for the coming winter, thanks to results from an American Gas Association study.
The study concluded that conventional natural gas furnaces, on average, have an operational cost advantage over other heating sources, including advanced heat pumps, particularly on the coldest days, when space heating requirements are the highest and electric heat pump efficiency and heating capacity are the lowest.
The Jan. 30 record use of 150.2 billion cubic feet of gas saw the bulk of that load—75 Bcf—going to the residential and commercial sectors. And the events of January 2019 looked a lot like January 2014, when most of the Midwest was submerged in arctic temperatures for a prolonged period.
Using weather and energy consumption data collected from the 2014 polar vortex, the AGA study compared the cost of natural gas and electric space heating scenarios. Households are likely to have seen similar costs in January of this year compared to January 2014.
The average cost to heat a natural gas home during the polar vortex of January 2014 was $159, compared to $267 for a similar home with a heat pump that relied on an electric furnace for backup heat—a 40 percent difference, according to the study.
An equivalent home with equal heating loads operating an electrical resistance furnace would have incurred a heating bill of $445 on average. Customers using an 80 percent or higher efficiency natural gas furnace to supplement a heat pump in the same regions had average heating bills of $176, the study showed.
The study also noted that heat pump efficiency erodes as temperatures drop below 35 degrees, meaning that customers must rely on other forms of space heat, such as electrical resistance or natural gas furnaces, to supply auxiliary or backup heat.
