Heating cost calculation

heat pump, gas, firewood, coal, electricity

Calculating which home heating system will be cheaper can only be done by comparing the cost per unit of heat (Gcal, GJ, MWh) produced by sources that use different types of fuel (natural gas, coal, wood, briquettes, or electricity).

This online program allows you to calculate how much of each type of fuel needs to be burned to obtain one gigacalorie of thermal energy, one gigajoule, or one megawatt-hour. The program takes into account the heat obtained from combustion specific to each type of fuel and the efficiency of the boiler. You can leave these data unchanged as they vary little between countries, or you can modify them to what you consider more relevant.

This online calculation also considers the current cost of fuel and electricity. You need to indicate the current cost of fuel in your country in the appropriate fields of the calculation form.

As a result of the calculation, you will get the cost of heat generation and the amount of fuel required to generate one unit of thermal energy for each type of fuel.

The difference in the cost per unit of thermal energy from different heat sources is proportional to the difference in the cost of heating a house with the respective heat sources. For example, if the cost of one GJ of thermal energy obtained from a heat pump is half the cost of one GJ obtained from a gas boiler, then the annual heating costs of the house using the heat pump will be half the annual costs of heating with a natural gas boiler.

Additionally, the calculation provides an approximate cost of heating one square meter of a residential house for one year. The calculation is approximate, so the values may vary depending on the country where the house is located, the number of days in the heating season, the outside temperature, and the quality of the thermal insulation of the building envelope.

The program does not consider the cost of installing the heating system and heat source, the possible service life until renovation, or operational costs. For a more accurate comparison of the cost of heating from different heat sources, all these costs over the life of the house should be considered, for example, by calculating for 25 or 50 years.