Re:Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages
by vel0city on Wednesday November 03, 2021 @11:12AM
(#29095803)
Assuming you already have a gas furnace (I do, was in the house when I bought it), and the option is to either use resistive heat (space heaters, computers, inefficient lightbulbs) or the natural gas furnace, you would need to look at two main things. The cost of electricity per BTU and the cost of natural gas per BTU.
On a somewhat recent decently high gas usage month that emulated a cold winter (forgot to turn off the pool heater from spa mode on the whole pool circulation mode for a few days...oof) my $/CCF (Centi-Cubic Foot) was 1.22. Converting $/CCF to $/MMBTU, divide by 1.037 to get ~$1.176/MMBTU.
Electricity is usually billed at kWh pricing. 1MMBTU = ~293kWh. I pay ~$0.086/kWh, so 293 * .086 = $25.198/MMBTU.
Obviously, you're not getting 100% efficiency with the natural gas furnace. I think the one I have in my attic which is almost a decade old is rated at like 85% efficient. 90% efficient furnaces are available, some of them don't even require a metal chimney as the resulting air isn't even that hot.
But even at only 85% efficiency, you're still taking more than 10x less dollars per heat.
This math changes when thinking about buying new equipment and other factors. I haven't looked at equipment pricing so it would be hard for me to say how expensive it would be compared to alternatives. This can also vary a good bit from your local market. Energy is stupid cheap in my area, natural gas is a good bit cheaper here than a good chunk of the US while electricity prices are about median, maybe a bit lower.
On a somewhat recent decently high gas usage month that emulated a cold winter (forgot to turn off the pool heater from spa mode on the whole pool circulation mode for a few days...oof) my $/CCF (Centi-Cubic Foot) was 1.22. Converting $/CCF to $/MMBTU, divide by 1.037 to get ~$1.176/MMBTU.
Electricity is usually billed at kWh pricing. 1MMBTU = ~293kWh. I pay ~$0.086/kWh, so 293 * .086 = $25.198/MMBTU.
Obviously, you're not getting 100% efficiency with the natural gas furnace. I think the one I have in my attic which is almost a decade old is rated at like 85% efficient. 90% efficient furnaces are available, some of them don't even require a metal chimney as the resulting air isn't even that hot.
But even at only 85% efficiency, you're still taking more than 10x less dollars per heat.
This math changes when thinking about buying new equipment and other factors. I haven't looked at equipment pricing so it would be hard for me to say how expensive it would be compared to alternatives. This can also vary a good bit from your local market. Energy is stupid cheap in my area, natural gas is a good bit cheaper here than a good chunk of the US while electricity prices are about median, maybe a bit lower.