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All-electric homes are cheaper to build than fossil fuel residences

commonwealthmagazine.org All-electric homes are cheaper to build than fossil fuel residences - CommonWealth Magazine

OUTSIDE THE STATE LEGISLATURE’S doors, our air was filled with wildfire smoke from Canada and extreme heat, while record flooding wiped out farms and livelihoods in western Massachusetts. Inside, lobbyists and special interests used a flawed academic report in an attempt to undermine Massachusetts’s...

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commonwealthmagazine.org /opinion/all-electric-homes-are-cheaper-to-build-than-fossil-fuel-residences/

15 comments

All homes are electric, gas pipes are an additional cost. All electric just means, what, 2 or 3 outlets using slightly higher gauge wiring?
- You can also do things like mini splits in many areas instead of expensive, bulky, insulation-piercing, unreliable ducts.
  
  I wonder if you could do that instead of central air. I've lived in houses where certain rooms don't get AC or heat, annoyingly always mine. having one per floor, internal insulation, separate smart thermometers etc. could provide both better heating and cooling and eek out energy savings.
- it's not quite that trivial but if you're building new the cost is roughly the same. I live in an all electric home and wouldn't dream of ripping out the electric stove for a gas one, or getting a gas water heater. I mean I could go for an induction stove but that is a drop in replacement
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Electric has been cheap to install all my adult life. It may be cheap to install, but it has traditionally been more expensive for any appliances requiring heating. For energy intensive operations like heating water and air, much more expensive.
- Use a reverse cycle heat pump they are very efficient to heat and cool your building. Heat pump to heat your hot water tank is also very efficient.
  
  That's the future for sure, although still not quite viable if it gets decently cold and gas is still cheaper.
  
  Natural gas (not bottled propane) is generally still much cheaper per net BTU in most of the US for heating. I had to make a choice back in ~2005 when I switched from oil heat. At the time - with NG near it's historical highs and my local electricity just 10c/hWh - they were on par, with electric having a theoretical advantage in ideal conditions and near parity in our coldest 2 months of the year. Of course since then electric has gone up 50% and NG has dropped by a factor of 3. To stich now would be prohibitively expensive, though, as the cost to extend the NG line has tripled (to around $15k or more). I'll never make that back in energy savings.
Well yeah, easier to lay conduit than a gas pipe.
On a $750,000 house, adding gas lines is probably $5k, maybe $8k at the most (area dependent). Source: I’m a builder.

Gas doesn’t stop working when power goes out. Gas is cheaper in long run to use (again, area dependent). Gas is usually a lot more efficient.

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