Electric furnaces are a fairly popular heating option in warmer places like Southern California. The main reason that many people opt to install electric furnaces in their homes is that they are fairly inexpensive. However, the upfront cost of an electric furnace or other type of heating unit doesn’t tell the full story. Instead, you should also consider how much your heating system will cost to run. Here, we’ll look at the typical costs of using an electric furnace. We’ll also compare the costs to other types of central heating to help you find the most energy-efficient heating option for your home.
Typical Costs to Heat a Home With an Electric Furnace
It’s quite difficult to estimate exactly how much it would cost you to heat your home with an electric furnace simply because every home is different. No matter what type of heating unit you have, the cost of running it will vary based on factors like square footage, level of insulation and local climate. In warmer climates like California, your heating costs will obviously be much lower than for those who live in places with freezing cold winters.
Estimating the costs to heat your home with an electric furnace is difficult. The fact is that electric furnaces consume huge amounts of electricity and are always fairly expensive to operate. If you have a home in California that’s around 1,500 square feet, you’d typically need a 50,000-BTU furnace. An electric furnace of this size would normally use around 15 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That’s about three to five times more energy than an AC unit would use to cool the same size home. Of course, your furnace wouldn’t need to run nearly as much as your AC, but it would still use far more energy every time it runs.
Comparing Electric Furnaces to Other Heating Options
The easiest way to fully understand how expensive electric furnaces are to run is to compare them with other central heating options, namely gas furnaces and heat pumps. In our area, no type of heating will cost you a lot since your heating system won’t need to run all that much. That said, a gas furnace or a heat pump will always cost much less to run than an electric furnace.
On average, heating your home with a gas furnace will cost around 2.5 times less than using an electric furnace. This is because gas furnaces use less energy and also because natural gas is normally quite a bit cheaper than electricity. Another reason is that electric furnaces produce less heat than gas furnaces, which means they will have to run for longer each time they come on.
A heat pump will always cost the least amount to run, especially in a warmer climate like ours. Compared to a gas furnace, most heat pumps are around three times more energy efficient. A heat pump would usually cost about 75% less to run than an electric furnace. It will also typically cost somewhere around 50% less to run than a gas furnace depending on how efficient the gas furnace is.
The only real advantage that electric furnaces have is that they will always be the cheapest type of central heating to install. However, it’s always important to look more at the long-term costs instead of just focusing on the upfront cost. In this regard, an electric furnace isn’t a great option since the long-term cost of running it will quickly cancel out the lower initial cost. You’ll likely end up paying a few thousand dollars more over the long run with an electric furnace compared to if you had a gas furnace or a heat pump. This is in spite of the fact that a gas furnace or heat pump will cost more upfront.
Why Heat Pumps Are the Perfect Choice for California Homes
California has been trying hard to encourage residents to switch to heat pumps in recent years and with good reason. The fact that heat pumps are so much more energy efficient means they are much more environmentally friendly. Another advantage that heat pumps have over gas furnaces is that they don’t produce any carbon emissions on their own and thus have a much smaller carbon footprint.
Heat pumps are also by far the safest heating option. With a gas furnace or electric furnace, there is always a small risk that the unit could start a fire. While the risk is fairly small, the fact is that heating is the second leading cause of home fires. A heat pump could potentially catch fire if it has an electrical issue like a short, but the risk is much less than with a furnace. Another issue with gas furnaces is that they produce carbon monoxide. If the unit isn’t venting correctly or has a cracked heat exchanger, the carbon monoxide can leak into the home and create a risk of fatal carbon monoxide poisoning. This is yet another area where heat pumps are far superior and much safer since they don’t produce carbon monoxide or any other hazardous combustion fumes.
Another massive advantage of installing a heat pump system in your home is that it can supply heating in the winter and air conditioning in the hotter months. This makes a heat pump much more cost effective than having to install separate heating and air conditioning units. Heat pumps do tend to have a slightly shorter life expectancy than furnaces and central ACs. However, a heat pump will still cost much less overall since you only have to worry about replacing one unit instead of two. The amount you’ll save by heating your home with a heat pump will also offset the fact that you may need to replace it more often than you would a furnace.
One other thing to consider is that there are many different rebates and incentives available when you install a heat pump. If you install an ENERGY STAR-certified heat pump anytime between now and the end of 2023, you will automatically be eligible for a tax credit worth 30% of the installation cost, up to $2,000. Many utility providers also offer their own rebate programs for any customers who install a new heat pump. These rebate programs can end up saving you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars more. Heat pumps tend to be a bit more expensive than furnaces. However, these available tax credit and rebate programs will often make the cost of installing a heat pump at least comparable, if not less expensive than installing a furnace.
Contact the Professionals
If you need to replace the heating system in your home, you can turn to the experts at Southland Heating & Air Conditioning. We install heat pumps and furnaces as well as central air conditioners and ductless mini-splits, and we carry equipment from top brands, including Trane, Lennox, Ruud, Daikin and Mitsubishi. Our NATE-certified technicians also specialize in heating and cooling repairs and maintenance and work on all makes and models of HVAC equipment. We happily offer free estimates on all services we perform, and we always provide upfront pricing with no hidden fees. Give us a call today to schedule a consultation and learn what makes us the best choice for HVAC installation in the Newbury Park area.
