Electricity and natural gas use for residential space heating: U.S. experience, 1976–1980

Abstract

Energy consumption for residential space heating has been studied for households using electricity and natural gas, based on aggregate sales data for 1976–1980. The ratio of average end-use energy consumption with electricity to that with natural gas was found to be 0.44 ± 0.06, despite little use of electric heat pumps. Together with the results of other studies, this estimate suggests that electric space heating can be used in future construction without requiring more primary input energy (including generation losses) than the average input energy used for gas space heating in existing residences, assuming modest conservation measures. While these results do not establish the relative fuel consumption in future gas-heated and electrically-heated households, they do provide a rough ceiling on the amount of energy required if electricity is used.