FUEL COST COMPARISON CHART WITH EXPLANATION

The Fuel Cost Comparison Chart is an Excel spreadsheet designed to compare the cost of various heating fuels and appliances. For comparison purposes the common denominator is “Cost Per Million BTU’s delivered”. Heat is measured in BTU’s (British Thermal Units). All fuel sources have a heat value when purchased. For natural gas it is 1080 btu’s per cubic foot. For propane it is 91,500 btu’s per gallon. For #2 Fuel Oil it is 140,000 btu’s per gallon. Electricity yields 3413 btu’s per kWh (Killowatt Hour or 1000 Watt hours).

By taking the fuel heat value and multiplying it by the efficiency of the appliance the chart shows how many units of fuel are needed to have an output from the appliance of 1 million btu’s. Gas furnaces are usually in one of 3 categories – 65% efficient if they have a pilot light, 80% efficient if they have an “induced draft” blower and metal vent, or 90% efficient if they vent with plastic pipe. Oil furnaces are usually 80% efficient. Electricity when straight resistance is 100% efficient for these purposes (no losses up a chimney).

By taking this number of units and multiplying by the cost per unit the answer is revealed in cost per million btu’s delivered by the appliance. Consumers should input their own cost per unit value to arrive at current cost per million.