Cheaper Electric Cheaper Electricity Bills

I am opening a laundromat in a place with very high energy costs. Would it make sense to go gas with the washers and dryers as opposed to electric?

I own a laundromat as well. I tried to use gas but it was much more costly than electric

What are some things that electric cars DON’T have that gas powered cars do have?

Yes it is. For example, an internal combustion engine (ICE) has many moving parts which can wear down or break. An electric motor has no moving components.

"EVs, particularly those using AC or brushless DC motors, have far fewer parts to wear out. An ICE vehicle on the other hand will have many mechanical, fluid, and electrical parts that may include some of the following: pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts, cylinder walls, valves, valve springs, valve guides, camshafts, cambelts, lifters, pushrods, rocker arms, oil pumps, fuel pumps, water pumps, radiators, gearbox (rarely used in EV’s), clutch, distributors, spark plugs, air filters, oil filters, coolant and vacuum hoses, injectors, carburettors, turbos, superchargers, gaskets, seals and bearings. All of these parts may wear out over time.

Both hybrids and EVs can use regenerative braking, which greatly reduces wear and tear on friction brakes – Prius taxi drivers report far less frequent brake maintenance."

I have an electric stove that was given to me for free. The home that I am in is fitted for gas and I don’t have a gas stove as of yet. Would it be worth the cost to get an outlet installed and forget about the gas?

All resources are expensive to use they are a commodities so we the consumer must pay for them, it also depends on how much do you cook , I have both stoves and the only difference is keeping them clean I love the self cleaning ovens so they use more energy when I clean the ovens, during black out I was glad to have the gas stove because I could cook . My advise to you would be to have both stove installed to serve you better in case of a large dinner party or even a possible black out .

No. They will both use the same btu (watt hours) to heat the room. But the baseboard will do it better.

We have gas logs in our living room–just for extra heat when we need it but with gas prices as they are we haven’t even turned them on yet.–we have a gas pack and these are just for "extra heat". would it be cheaper to change these to electric logs as I do miss the beauty of the fireplace.

It is generally cheaper to heat by gas; 1 kw of electric would produce about 3415 BTU(resistance heat), 1 therm (ft3) of gas would get 100K btu( but at 80% efficiency it is 80K). I dont know what your gas and electric rate are; you can could do the math from here !

I’ve heard that its cheaper to have an electric key meter than paying quarterly than having to get a bill every quarter and them adding on VAT etc.

They do say it’s more expensive on a pay as you go key metre, however, with me, I found it much much cheaper!
They wanted me on £30 per month for a paper bill, where as on my key metre I can get by with £20 a month and that’s with 3 people here!!!
But from what I am told, this is not usually the case with key metres.
Guess I’m lucky!
Maybe go for a key metre for now, and then change later on?

what is better, an electric dryer or gas and why? Which will be cheaper regarding bills? Will it be cheaper to get a electric dryer or gas when it comes to paying bills????

A gas dryer is a more expensive purchase however in the long run it will cost you less as it is less expensive to use gas to run your dryer.

I am planning to buy a BBQ grill this summer. We are two at home and sometimes expect a few more couples. We dont want a very big or expensive grill. Charcoal is a strict no-no and Natural Gas Grill is not an option in the rented apartment. So its come down to Propane and Electric.

Gotta be propane.

I have a basic, entry-level propane Weber, and it has "Flav-R-Bars" (how hokey does that sound?!) but they really do add flavor. They are like an upside-down V, and meat juices and fat fall on them and make smoke, which flavors the meat.

I am looking to buy Electric Power Distribution Handbook (Electric Power Engineering) by Tom Short and I found a copy on Amazon.co.uk but it is over a £100. Anywhere I can get a cheaper/used copy?
Thank you.

try ebay

Currently my house is set up for electric baseboard heat, but gas is available on site. I’m wonding if it would be worth it in long term utility bills if I were to switch to gas heat. What do you think?

Gas was MUCH cheaper. It is still cheaper.

But conversion from baseboard to forced air gas is a MAJOR expense. It might be worth it if it is a house. But with all that construction for the ducting and vents the cost could be prohibitive as the payback time could take many years. It would have been easier if you had forced air electric.

The benefit of baseboard is that it makes it easy to shut off a room or rooms. That is a savings in a way but those cold rooms make it drafter as they draw heat from the other rooms in the winter.

One BIG drawback I found with baseboard was that I thought if I turned off the baseboard while gone for my long workdays I would save.

I found that I was often cold and I had to crank up the electric heat rather high in the evening. Without fan circulation I checked temps and found for several hours with a cold house I would be cold sitting in a chair and the chair measured 65 degrees.

But with the electric heat on it was +100! degrees at the ceiling. I found not letting it get so cold during the day and adding table top fans to blow the air around I was much more comfortable and saved money. I saved by leaving it on MORE because I didn’t crank it up so hot trying to warm the place up when I got home. I know it sounds a bit counter intuitive but was true.

I am an HVAC/refrigeration guy so it was a "project" for me and I had lots of thermometers. LOL.

But what I did was convert the forced air electric for the upstairs plus both water heaters to gas for a BIG savings .

For the downstairs I added a small wall furnace. It cut the bill for the upstairs to half and the apartment to near one third at the time.

When I close the bedroom door in the apartment it doesn’t get heated so I did use the baseboard a bit at night and only in the cold times in the winter. But for the rest of the time the wall furnace heats it just fine. That is the only baseboard I use.

The price of gas has gone up a lot since then but going to gas I would guess you might cut your bill by 1/3 depending on all your factors. i.e. I built the apartment and heavily insulated it.

Here is what I recommend for you:

Convert the water heater. I know people that have said that ALONE justified bringing in the gas. (depends on how many people in the house).

Then add a wall furnace someplace to supplement the baseboard. It can do a lot if not most of the heating. If it is as noisy as mine you don’t want it near the TV. lol.

That is the least expensive and thus most cost effective way to approach it. And you can add, change it, to a central forced air furnace later or if you want to add a/c that we only rarely need in the cool NW . But if you like putting money in to the house.. (wink).

IF your water heater is in the garage, great!, and if your living room wall is common to the garage you can put in a wall furnace there easily.

And the wall furnace adds air circulation. I still recommend using extra fans, even in the winter with just the baseboard (from my experience with how I used the heat).

And don’t be too cheap about the wall furnace. Mine was cheap and has a fan that is too noisy and working on them I know there are better, quieter, ones out there. I would replace it but the property (acres in town with three houses on it) is slated for development, on hold due to the housing situation.

Unless you are planning on staying there 20 to 30 years for the payback IMHO that is your best solution.

Good Luck.