Home heating with Propane...OMG!!

[SnowRidge]

<font color="blue"> With your electricity figures are you including taxes and the like which add more to the bill? I would think it's almost a wash.
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Actual rate from utility web site $0.06414 per kWh + $8.56 monthly customer charge. There are no taxes on residential electricity here.

As you can see, it's not a wash.

 

[Junkman]

I just checked with my supplier and the present price that I am paying is Selkirk pricing plus 28 cents. Selkirk price for last week was $.9833 plus the 28 cents = $1.2633. My usage is approximately 3000 gallons per year. I also checked with a friend that sells propane for BBQ grills and their price is by contract for $1.25 per gallon. The big difference must be in the cost of delivery of the product to small users.

 

[slowrev]

I just got my Propane prepay lock-in from southern States. It is $1.55 this year. Not as bad as I had feared. I burned $650 last year and will have a high efficiency furnace installed for this year so I should burn about 1/3 less. Not too bad, but not cheap either.

Ben

 

[SnowRidge]

<font color="blue"> Could you tell me what the conversion factors are for propane to BTU, and also for KW to BTU? I'd like to toss those around a little myself and share it with others, thanks. </font>

I found these on the web and used them for my calculations.

Propane: 91,600 BTU per gallon.

Electricity: 3,413 BTU per KWH.

Here's a better link I found later. The numbers are slightly different, but not enough to matter. There is also added information that is quite useful

 

[gsxr1100]

I find that 100% funny…not at you. My wife works for Southern States (aka Agway distributor for Northeast) and they sell everything. No wonder Agway corp. went Chap 11 and they (southern States) are buying up all the stuff like mad..

If you ever go to agway.com and ask a question it goes to marketing (her)….tell her I sent ya!
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

the problem I found with high efficiency furnace (items) is that it takes a LONGGGGGG time to make you$$$ back for the dleta in price.

I bought a Furnace 94% efficient Kelvinator G6TC-110 (built buy nordyne) for $700 (my cost; retails for about 2.5X more) and it will take many years to make my money back. If I paid, retail, forget it.

 

[TonyV]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I found these on the web and used them for my calculations.... )</font>

Thanks for the info and the link. It seems that the U.S government concurs with you initial calculations, although they're prices are taken from 2001. If you insert todays propane prices into their figures, and include the costs to run a forced air furnace, then compared to purely electric heat, its about a push. When comparing propane to a ground based heat pump..well....there is no comparison, as said before, its a no brainer.

...Tony

 

[fishman]

Well my Electric Coop has been charging a "fuel surcharge" now for a couple of years. So the rates and the base meter charge aren't necessarily the whole cost. The fuel surcharge is adding 30 to 50% to my bill, depending on usage.

My home is all electric, so I don't really have a choice. Except in winter, when I can use the fireplace.

One other thing, it seems to me that since a lot of electricity is made using oil and natural gas, and that process can't be 100% efficient, that electricity must always be more expensive than heating with gas or oil in an efficient economy. Of course there are nuclear and coal fired plants so one can't make a blanket statement. As a point to ponder, one local plant fired by natural gas is basically closed down, while another fired by coal is making all of the electricity they can.

 

[SnowRidge]

Not a lot of hydro power there in Texas, I guess. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Fortunately, those of us in Tennessee, especially East Tennessee, have good ol' TVA making electricy right down the road from Richard.

"We don't need no stinkin' snail darters" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[NewToy]

If anyone is planning to go to a heat pump you should check out the geo-thermal units. We built a new 2100sf home and our highest electric bill just came the other day, it was $103.00. The house is all electric and I did spend a little extra on the insulation package. We went R 38 in the ceilings and R17 in the exterior walls combined with 1" ridgid foam @R5 for an R22 wall plus whatever the siding and OSB add up to. The ridgid foam sure makes for a quiet house, my buddy said it reminded him of a big beer cooler. Even if it takes awhile to recoup the initial costs I feel good knowing I'm doing my part to conserve resources. It won't be long before this whole oil thing really hits the fan.

John

 

[Junkman]

It isn't the amount of insulation that you add to the home that accounts for the heat loss, it is the amount of glass in the home. I have 6" in the walls, and 1" of rigid foam additional on the outside of the walls, 12" in the attic spaces. The thermal imaging camera shows the house is as tight as it could possibly be, but the windows are the real culprits of the heat loss in my home. All glazing is Andersen High Performance windows and none of them have any leaks, but you just can't stop a certain amount of loss through the glass. If I had my way, there wouldn't be a window larger than 12" x 12" in the house. The smallest is 3' x 5', and the largest is a 8' high 28' wide wall of glass. Almost forgot to mention the 7' sliding glass door and the 3 giant skylights. Needless to say, I would never build this house again!! Curtains help to keep the heat in, but the wife hates curtains and loves daylight. I like curtains. We don't have curtains on anything but the bedroom, because she likes it dark for sleeping. When you are living in the woods, you don't have to worry about people looking in the windows, but you do have to contend with large energy bills. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif