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As the peak of oil production is approached and passed, we must expect the price of oil and LPG to rise. As governments begin to take global warming (and global dimming and ocean acidification) seriously, coal will become scarcer and more expensive.
Electricity, especially in Australia, is commonly generated by burning fossil fuels; this is obviously unsustainable from several points of view. Electricity is more efficient for heating than the calculated cost indicates because no heat goes up the flew, unlike those fuels that are burned. Also, if it powers a reverse cycle air conditioner its efficiency can be even higher. See my page Heating Efficiency.
Considering the above factors, Firewood will probably become more important as a fuel in the Western World in future. Firewood generally needs to be chopped into smaller pieces than those that you will get from the wood merchant. This might be thought of as a disadvantage or as a useful source of exercise.
Coal also requires manual handling.
All the fossil fuels add to the greenhouse problem when burned. Using electricity might also add to greenhouse depending on how your electricity is generated.
Europeans and others who do not use the dollar can simply enter prices in their own monetary unit; the answers will be in the same units.
For USAzians who do not use metric units I can only say: learn metric and move into the twentieth century (I would say the twenty-first century, but it would be safer for you to move a small step at a time).
Some energy units, conversions and definitions are given on my
Energy Units page.
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My source for the energy content of fossil fuels and ethanol
was the Australian Bureau of
Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) document titled
Energy Definitions.
Information on the energy content of firewood came from Wikipedia. Another source I used for the energy content of liquid fuels was Wikipedia. While petrol (automotive gasoline) is not used for heating, the reader might be interested to know that, by volume, automotive diesel contains 17% more energy than petrol. By weight petrol contains 2% more energy than diesel. |
Green Resources: A number of useful home energy guides. |
On this page... Calculate cost of energy from LPG Calculate cost of energy from coal Calculate cost of energy from electricity Calculate cost of energy from firewood Calculate cost of energy from oil General comments Technical notes |