If you’ve landed on this post, you’re probably in the middle of planning for the coming winter with a new heating installation. You might be in a new house that doesn’t yet have a heating system to call its own, or your old heater has finally ended its days and needs to be replaced.
Whatever the situation, right now you’re facing a question about your home heating future. Whatever system you decide to have installed, it will be with you for ten years or more—so you want to make the right choice. We’re here to help with the most common choice dilemma: go with a gas furnace or an electric furnace.
Why Gas Furnaces Are So Popular
To answer the question posed in the post title, no, there’s no obvious choice when it comes to gas vs. electric. At least not in general. When it comes to individual homes, sometimes there absolutely is a clear choice. And often, that choice is a natural gas furnace.
Gas furnaces are the most common type of heating system found around the country, and for a few good reasons:
- They offer high heating levels. When it comes to sheer heating output to defeat the coldest night or a drafty house, the gas furnace is tough to beat.
- They’re convenient, since natural gas is piped directly to homes. There’s no need to worry about filling up a propane tank or forgetting to take delivery.
- They can help save money, since natural gas is a less costly energy source than electricity.
However, Electric Furnaces Are Sometimes the Clear Choice
You’ve probably already figured out why sometimes an electric furnace is the better choice—if a home doesn’t have a natural gas connection, then it can’t have a natural gas furnace! The electric furnace offers a flexible option, because it works for any home. And there are some advantages to consider with electric furnaces:
- Although they cost more to run season after season compared to gas furnaces, electric furnaces are less expensive to install initially—and this may be better for a current household budget.
- Electric furnaces don’t suffer as much wear over their lifetimes (no gas exhaust to deal with), and therefore tend to have longer lifetimes.
- For households concerned about potential health hazards due to natural gas use, an electric furnace offers fewer safety worries.
Still Unsure? We Can Help
You may still be unsure of the best choice to make if either a gas or an electric furnace is an option for your home. Not to worry! You don’t want to install any type of furnace on your own, so have the heating professionals involved in the process from the start. We offer excellent furnace services in Plymouth, IN, and we’ll begin with helping you choose the right type and size of system. (Who knows? You may end up going with a heat pump or another completely different type of heater instead.)
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