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Even With a 40% Increase Natural Gas is Still a Steal

natural gas in ontario

News outlets around Ontario are all reporting the outrage that Natural Gas will increase by 40%.

Even with a 40% increase Natural gas is still a steal for home owners. Here is Why.

Home owners in Southern Ontario who have natural gas heat their homes cheaper than anyone. Propane, Oil, Electricity are the main alternatives and they are easily all 5-8 times more expensive.

  • Fuel Oil – A lot of homes still use fuel oil as a heating source. It’s an older source and more and more homes are migrating away from it. The January 2014 cost per liter is roughly $1.37. Most homes use between 3000 and 6000 liters of fuel oil per year. That’s over 4000$ a year for heating.
  • Propane – Most homeowners that migrate from fuel oil switch to propane in hopes if reducing home heating costs. Unfortunately propane prices spiked this year and it is now just as expensive. Prices have gone from around 60 cents a liter to over a dollar, basically doubling. Home heating with propane can cost anywhere from 3-6 thousand a year, and even more in cold winters like this one.
  • Electricity – The true cost of electricity is much higher than the 8-12 cents your bill says you’re paying. Deliver, debt retirement, line losses, taxes all add up to a significantly higher cost. If you think you’re saving money by heating only certain rooms in your house with an electric heater you’re sorely mistaken. Some homes also employ electric forced air furnace systems, home owners with these systems easily receive $500+ a month bills.
  • Natural Gas – The biggest part of your natural gas bill probably isn’t even the natural gas you have used, it is the 20$ customer fee that Enbridge charges customers every month. Natural gas is charged by the cubic meter, and current prices are roughly 11-12 cents per cubic meter. Most customers are paying roughly 50-100 dollars a month; this is so much less than any other home heating source. Add that 40% increase that has been proposed… you’re still paying less than half of any other fuel.

 

 

Are you thinking about switching?  I would seriously consider thinking again.

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Heatworks Model 1 Water Heater

On demand by Heatworks

There is a new start-up company from the US that is producing what they call a new tankless water heater. The Heatworks Model 1 appears to be a point of use electric instant water heater. We haven’t tested or have even seen their product but we feel there are a few things to clarify.

  1.  Although it is tankless it is important to realize that this a small point of use system.
  2. It is also electric, and here in Ontario we pay some of the highest prices for electricity.
  3. They don’t address incoming water temperatures as well as hot water output.

What Is Interesting

They claim to have eliminated anodes that are the prime source of heat in a conventional electric water heater. Additionally those anodes are most commonly the area of failure due to calcium and lime build up. The calcium and lime accretion is an issue in all water heaters but so far the tankless system deals with it the best by building in the ability to isolate the affected areas and flush them out.
The Heatworks Model 1 uses graphite electrodes, which they imply eliminates the issue of calcium and lime build up. Since graphite is a dry lubricant, deposits will not adhere to it. Additionally, ISI’s patented heating method, Joule heating, completely eliminates the high temperatures that cause scale and mineral buildup. If this is accurate they would likely have a revolution in water heaters in their hands. Your conventional electric tank type water heater loses 2% efficiency per year due to the insulating effects the calcium cause on heating elements.

Will It Work In Ontario

This hasn’t been addresses on their website. In fact they leave a lot of details out regarding the system they are building. We have contacted them in hopes of clarifying some of the issues we have mentioned. Hopefully we can get a demo model to test here at our office.

They have contacted us and addressed all the questions we had regarding the system.  A test model has be offered once available and we will be certain to provide a full overview of the system.  We are excited with this new technology and cant wait to perform a full review.

Contact

In the mean time check out their website and their funded Kickstarter .

Official Site – Heatworks Model 1
Kickstarter – Heatworks Model 1