Heating. Propane vs Electric vs Wood Pellet

[shooterdon]

Supplier owned tanks here are a buck a year. I own mine but my rentals have supplier tanks.

Be wary of suppliers with cheap charges for their tank "rentals". They may make it up on cost of propane. I get a $.10/gal discount with an owned tank. Rarely is there a free lunch.

 

[deserteagle71]

Supplier owned tanks here are a buck a year. I own mine but my rentals have supplier tanks.

Wow! For years my tank rental was $36 a year. Three years ago it started climbing - this year's rental was $122 a year for a 320 gallon tank. When I called and complained they told me it was for "maintenance fees". This tank was installed 25 years ago. It was old and rusty then and it is REALLY old and rusty now and they have not touched - or any other part of my propane setup - it in those 25 years except to fill it.

I've located a source and will be driving to Oregon this summer to buy my own tank (companies around here refuse to sell tanks, rental only). For what they are charging for tank rental I'll be ahead of the game in just a few years.

 

[D2Cat]

I see 500 gal. tank on CL or FB all the time around here. Some even have a good percentage of propane in them for $500 or less.

 

[shooterdon]

Some companies will charge an "inspection fee" to fill a customer owned tank they have not filled before.

 

[deserteagle71]

I see 500 gal. tank on CL or FB all the time around here. Some even have a good percentage of propane in them for $500 or less.

I've been checking Craigslist and FB Marketplace for nearly a year now. Bigger tanks are extremely rare; the ones that have shown up looked really rough and probably wouldn't pass any kind of inspection or certification. I'm just going to buy new, one that's already certified for use.

 

[Everhard]

My house is a around 1900sq/ft it's electric baseboards if I'm not home to keep the wood stoves going. over 7 years heating primarily with wood given the crazy high cost of heating only with the baseboards. (Ontario, an hour north of Toronto)
I've debated many an option over the years, this past fall chatting with a friend that has a good friend out east that installs mini-splits and he says the new ones are now much better in that they are 100% efficient down to minus 25c. So I'm seriously considering that option.
But... (There's always a but right?)
There's 4 of us that are all considering better heating options and ultimately we all like the idea of geothermal, just not the crazy high install cost. - We all have land and can do horizontal geothermal and as such we're wondering if we team up, buy an appropriate sized excavator, do the work ourselves at all our properties, and then sell said excavator afterwards - then exactly how much will it cost to have some one connect up a unit to heat/cool the house? It seems like for whatever reason most of the cost is the work putting in the bed for the geothermal system to use - which from what we can see is really only a bunch of labor and obviously a bunch of pipe... Are we missing something here?

Thanks,
E

 

[Smokeydog]

Big proponent of DIY but... do you have the skills and experience to do the work for trouble free installation? Education and experience tend to be expensive.

 

[Everhard]

Ya, at least 2 of us have been working in construction for more than long enough.
But regardless our idea is to do everything up to the heat exchanger and let some one that is in the business (we've a couple good connections there) install the heat exchanger etc.
Digging trenches and laying lines isn't exactly rocket science anyway. But if that represents a bigger chunk of the $30,000 install price then ya I'll do it myself!

E.

 

[mopardude318]

I have a pellet stove.... every 10 bags of pallets I burn, I open the front face where the glass is and vacuum it out. No big deal. Easy peasy. One bag lasts 2 days. I love my pellet stove.

 

[Smokeydog]

While replacing the water line to spring house where we get our water, installed two extra 1” lines for a ground coupled heat pump. The old log house used wood for heat and window air conditioning. Plans changed. Years later my wife and installed the best Mitsubishi mini split and could not be happier. Fraction of the cost compared to ground source heat pump. Increased comfort while the savings paid for heat-pump in few years.
Ground coupled units don’t care what the outside temperature is. Our spring runs 58*F year round. A good advantage in your area. Also can use the super heat to augment your hot water in cooling mode for additional cost savings.