gingerbee
Well-known member
I am happy with my gas setup, the installation + tank cost me 3300 for a Bradford white 50-gallon 40,000Btu high-efficiency power vent, I priced the heater out myself it was 2500-3500 just for the heater.
HE is 95% - 97.5% efficient with the by-product being mainly water. Most electricity in Canada is generated by natural gas. By any standard, gas grid systems are far cheaper to maintain than electric grids, so at the end of the day, gas is not only cheaper, it's far more efficient. This is the conundrum for me personally.Actually, that's not true - electric tanks are 100% efficient, in that 100% of the electricity that's going in is being converted to heat - it's just that they're limited to using 18.8 amps, and there's only so fast 18.8 amps of electricity will heat water.
Gas, on the other hand, has a much higher capacity to heat, so it heats faster. But it's less efficient, even the high efficiency HWT's lose some energy up the chimney.
Also, here is a great explanation r.e. the two heating elements, and how/why they work.
ere's a tidbit for you.... This is terrible imo.
About 45%. Natural gas generators normally employ a gas turbine combined with a steam generator to produce efficiencies of around 55%. Some state of the art systems can reach 60% but 55% is a good working average These combined systems generate around 25% of global electricity.
So no, electric tanks are NOT 100% efficient.
Exactly ginger. I think the argument shouldnt be "NG vs Electric". It should be electric vs electric.Well, we're getting into the weeds now with power generation, its varying forms and the fuels we use to get that power. the problem with using gas to get power is we are much better off using that gas directly like in gas water heaters when compared to using it for generators to produce electrical power for said water heaters.