All Electric vs Gas Furnace/Water Heater in Northern Illinois

[Bob Crane]

I've purchased my first property in Northern Illinois about 30 minutes south of Joliet. It is a 1400 sq ft single family in a C class area that I plan to rent.

The place will need all new utilities/appliances. Two landlords in town tell me they go all electric for the reasons discussed on these forums (one bill for tenant, one sec deposit, etc).

My HVAC guy tells me 1-2 of the bedrooms will be difficult to maintain warmth and the cost to heat will be very expensive for electricity. He also tells me the large property management company 30 minutes away sticks with gas for all SFH rentals. I emailed the prop mgmt company and confirmed - electric only for duplexes and apartments. Gas furnace/water heat for SFH's.

I throw all that out here to ask what you feel makes sense? It is a big expense and I'd rather not choose the one that will delay putting a renter in the house.

[Scott Schultz]

electric is fine for Multi family, But in an SFR if you want your rent paid in winter put in a gas furnace, cost of electric heat is double $450/mo for electric vs $225/mo for gas for example, as far as water heaters, the annual cost is about 1/3 more, but not a significant amount of money, as an annual cost to operate is around $350/year. I install electric water heaters in my units because they are cheap and easy to replace, Ace Hardware sells 40 gallon units for $299, vs a power vent Gas one is $749, and life span is about the same. (no labor cost in the figures) when I rehab a new property i buy we generally put in a new water heater, if the furnace is 20 years old it gets a new one, (order from e-barnett.com) you would need about a 70,000 BTU furnace, they run about $550 for a 92% high efficiency shipped to your door, (plus install)