Propane Heat

[LD1]

If ductwork is all contained within the heated structure, you won't loose any efficiency. Like a single story home with a full basement that is also conditioned.

Ductwork in unconditioned areas like attics or crawls, then good tight ductowk is a must.

 

[tractchores]

For purposes of choosing a fuel you can ignore things like duct work. That will be equal regardless of heat source (unless one requires a special distribution like a wood stove or something). What you want to know is based on the number of BTU in the fuel how much makes it into the system to be used as heat. The main loss here is going to be incomplete combustion or loss via the chimney (largely fixed via modern automatic dampers now).

I always find builders etc touting 'efficient propane' and doing numbers that don't include that propane has about 3/4 the engery content of the same amount of oil, which makes it look like a great deal.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

Add geothermal to propane forced air furnace? Use the propane as your back up heat. Last winter they ran out of propane in some spots here and it went to $7 a gal. We have big propane tank, only run dryer and stove. Fill it in the fall then again late spring. We can pre-buy and lock in price, haven't done it.