From the US Energy Information Administraion
Btu content of common energy units (preliminary estimates for 20211)
- 1 barrel (42 gallons) of crude oil produced in the United States = 5,691,000 Btu
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- 1 gallon of finished motor gasoline (containing about 10% fuel ethanol by volume) = 120,238 Btu
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- 1 gallon of diesel fuel or heating oil (with sulfur content less than 15 parts per million) = 137,381 Btu
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- 1 gallon of heating oil (with sulfur content at 15 to 500 parts per million) = 138,500 Btu
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- 1 barrel of residual fuel oil = 6,287,000 Btu
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- 1 cubic foot of natural gas = 1,039 Btu
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- 1 gallon of propane = 91,452 Btu
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- 1 short ton (2,000 pounds) of coal (consumed by the electric power sector) = 18,934,000 Btu
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- 1 kilowatthour of electricity = 3,412 Btu
View attachment 772253
Fuel Oil No. 2 Gallon $ 5.50 138,690 btu/gallon @75% eff. $5,287.57 per million btu.
Kerosene Gallon $ 7.59 135,000 btu/gallon @95% eff. $5,918.13 per million btu.
Propane Gallon $ 3.12 91,333 btu/gallon @95% eff. $3,595.86 per million btu.
Propane Gallon $ 3.12 91,333 btu/gallon @85% eff. $4018.91 per million btu.
Electric (heat pump) kiloWatt-hour (kWh) $0.18 3,412 btu/kwh @250% eff. $2,110.20 per million btu
or my supplemental heat being coal;
Coal Ton(2000 lbs.) $550.00 25,000,000 btu/ton @75% eff. is $2,933.33 or just a bit more then my mini-splits
which are doing the heating at this time for me, coal will likely come on next week or so when it gets too cold for the mini-splits to maintain eff.
So yes this year propane would be less expensive then #2 oil,
So all I need to do is buy a couple of 1000 gallon propane tanks at $2500 -$4500 each,
And $2500 - $3500 for a new boiler plus installation and fill the tanks,
So for $10,000 to $15,000 I can have a new heat source that may save me $1500 a year