Propane home heating???

Topic: Propane home heating??? (Read 4629 times) previous topic - next topic

Propane home heating???

October 01, 2009, 08:00:34 AM

Hey guys
I'm looking at a house out in the country to rent and it has propane heat.
I don't know much about it and worry that it may be cost prohibitive.
The furnace is only 2 yrs old and is 92.2% efficent.
Anyone who live's where it can get too -25-30 below have any experience on how much it costs to fill and how long a tank will last in the winter months???
The tank is a 500 gallon.

Propane home heating???

Reply #1 – October 01, 2009, 08:06:13 AM

it's not that efficient of a furnace to todays standards. (it's ok, not top line)
It really depends on how well insulated the house is.
you should be able to ask for fuel bills for the past year, when renting a house

Propane home heating???

Reply #2 – October 01, 2009, 08:21:04 AM

I have a 500-gallon propane tank. My furnace is 60% efficient (so yeah, 92% sounds great about now LOL) and I've resorted to supplementing the furnace with a ceramic space heater because the walls aren't insulated (the attic is, though). I'm down to two tank fills a year thanks to that little ceramic heater. But it's a brick ranch and just under 1,000 sq. feet so it's really easy to heat up the living area with that heater. Is this house you're looking at a two-story?

Anyway...I keep the thermostat at around 63 degrees in the winter. Sounds cold but it's actually fairly comfy for me. With the space heater on, the furnace only kicks on twice a day (once in the morning, once before I get home). The rest of the time, save for overnight and when I'm gone during the day, either the space heater is on or nothing is necessary. So I can make a tank of propane last a long time this way, and the electric bill goes up only $25-30/month, which is way cheaper than the equivalent in propane. The hot water is also heated by propane year-round.

One thing to remember about propane is that, historically, its cost is relatively stable. There are no real sharp upswings in price; it's slow and gradual. Of course it is made from a barrel of oil so it is still succeptible to volatile pricing, but in general the cost stays flat over time compared to home heating oil and natural gas. So it can easily be budgeted. It's also a relatively clean heat. One thing to check for is leaks, though...propane is extremely flammable and explosive. Have a professional come out and inspect the system if an odor is present or if you suspect a leak.

That's about the best advice I can give. Don't be afraid of it at all, as the propane cost is expected to be very low this winter, but as Jerry suggested you may want to see the bills from the past year just to make sure.

Propane home heating???

Reply #3 – October 01, 2009, 01:25:14 PM

If you're looking to live in the country, then you don't have a lot of heating options. Well, maybe I should say Natural Gas isn't normally one of your options. If propane is what "your" place has, then read the above post and decide if it's for you. I know of people here who have propane and then supplement with electric. You can usually get on some sort of an off-peak plan which can save you quite a bit of money.

Propane home heating???

Reply #4 – October 01, 2009, 01:44:59 PM

Propane is not that bad and with a 500 gallon tank you can get better prices (as long as you own your tank and do not have a contract). It will be cheaper right now than later in the winter. I would not have the monthly fill up. I would wait till you need 400 gallons or so and then work the dealers against each other on price. But this does assume you can spend $800 all at once.

TED

Propane home heating???

Reply #5 – October 01, 2009, 05:02:22 PM

We spend about $4000 a year on propane... most of it during the winter but its because our house is not well insulated.... it really sucks. We supplement with space heaters too...but, its an old farm house, not much we can do till we move.

Check with whoever lived there before and see what the bills were.... thats your best bet.

Propane home heating???

Reply #6 – October 01, 2009, 05:30:51 PM

Pot belly stove(s).

Not sure what "country" is to you but all my family and friends in what i consider the country use mixed heating sources. One of those little stoves can put out some serious heat. Plus you can cook on them! Double saving.

My Gramps have wood burning stoves in their house and it gets unbearable in there if you put too much wood in.

Depending on how old the house is I bet there is a stovepipe installed already. Wood can be had for nothing but time and would really cut down on cost.

Thats what I would do. Tried and True, cost is steady as are results.

Propane home heating???

Reply #7 – October 01, 2009, 05:44:24 PM

Quote from: LittleAngel1198;293383

We spend about $4000 a year on propane... most of it during the winter but its because our house is not well insulated.... it really sucks. We supplement with space heaters too...but, its an old farm house, not much we can do till we move.

Check with whoever lived there before and see what the bills were.... thats your best bet.

Ouch..... my wife hits the ceiling when our gas bill gets near $300 for January. That would absolutely give her a stroke.

Propane home heating???

Reply #8 – October 01, 2009, 07:16:42 PM

I heat mainly with firewood, but when I first bought the house and wasn't living in it, it included a new tankful of furnace oil (and a bill for $800 for the oil, and this was long before the huge price spike of last year). I closed the deal on March 3rd and the tank was empty by mid April. I shudder to think what this place would cost to heat in the dead of winter with oil. I go through about 6-7 cords of wood a year. Last year I gathered up all the wood so essentially heated for free, but didn't have a truck this year so I had to buy it. In 8 foot lengths it was $100/cord, so my heat this year will cost me roughly $700 (I supplement the wood heat with electric during the overnight hours, just in my bedroom, and I also use oil in Sept, early Oct and April and May).

Propane home heating???

Reply #9 – October 01, 2009, 09:05:56 PM

The house is 1500 square feet two levels.
The propane fireplace is in the basp00get where the original wood fireplace and chimne is(insert i quess).
Removing it to go back to wood is not an option as it is not my house and installing any kind of other wood/pellet burning device is also unfortunatley out of the question.
I did find out that the propane tank is owned by superior propane so i must use them(fighting for prices is not an option)
I am also told by the propane company that the water heater,fireplace and dryer are all propane heat in addition to the furnace.
According to them the propane useage by the previous tenant was around 4493littres per year which is two tank fills totaling 2000cdn dollars(1000cdn per fill at current prices).
The house also has a 150.00 honeywell touchscreen programable thermostat which is nice.

Propane home heating???

Reply #10 – October 01, 2009, 09:25:28 PM

that price seems pretty reasonable for running everything on propane all year. (assuming the heat was set to at least 68 or 20 celsius)

btw... fireplaces suck more to use then a furnace.

Where is this house you speak of?

Propane home heating???

Reply #11 – October 01, 2009, 09:27:52 PM

, you guys have actual heat in your homes for the winter...
must be nice, all i have is a quilt.
its weird this subject came up as someone asked me about propane heat for your home like two weeks ago. i know nothing about heating your whole house with it(i always assumed they meant natural gas when they mentioned it) but when i was a kid we had a propane fireplace that my father put in. pretty simple and worked well enough to heat a good portion of the house, with a 50 or so gal tank lasted us thru the 2 cold months. basically it was only on when we were "all" home and was off when we werent(around 3 hours per day, not every day).

im with the wood stove, they throw off some heat and some people around here still use them, btw its not the country. ofcourse they are all old people and their houses are uncomfortably hot, to me i mean.

some of you mentioned your using electric space heaters, do not leave them on while your not around or no ones home. not because they can tip over and start a fire but because most of them are "made in china" using INFERIOR WIRING and WILL burn your house down.
you get what you pay for is all i can say :flame:

Propane home heating???

Reply #12 – October 01, 2009, 09:29:29 PM

Get an Edinpure heater and carry it into each room you are in. Should allow you to program the furnace to run less yet you stay warm. That Edinpure is pretty nice.

Propane home heating???

Reply #13 – October 02, 2009, 02:47:43 AM

I've got a Longwood dual-fuel stove/furnace in my basp00get. Uses diesel fuel (aka heating oil, same thing, basically) and also burns wood. I've had houses with nat. gas, houses with propane, and the wood heat is by far the cheapest, easiest, and warmest.

I won't ever have natural gas again, if that's the only option I won't live in the house it's in.

Everyone else has already stated the best of ideas, so I won't repeat them, and since you said wood heat is out of the question...well, hopefully the house is decently insulated, but propane is better than natural gas, IMO.

Propane home heating???

Reply #14 – October 02, 2009, 07:51:50 AM

Quote from: Ductape91;293421

some of you mentioned your using electric space heaters, do not leave them on while your not around or no ones home. not because they can tip over and start a fire but because most of them are "made in china" using INFERIOR WIRING and WILL burn your house down.
you get what you pay for is all i can say :flame:

When I mentioned that I heat my bedroom with electricity, I probably should've clarified. When I renovated this house I ran all new wiring, including 220V baseboard heat throughout the house (and a new 200 amp service to feed it the juice). I can heat the whole house with either wood, heating oil, or electricity. The only time I ever use a space heater is when I'm in the garage under a car, I take a small heater with me because the garage stove's heat doesn't make it under a vehicle and that concrete floor is COLD.

Quote from: FordTruckFreeek;293456

I've got a Longwood dual-fuel stove/furnace in my basp00get. Uses diesel fuel (aka heating oil, same thing, basically) and also burns wood. I've had houses with nat. gas, houses with propane, and the wood heat is by far the cheapest, easiest, and warmest.

I've got the same setup, but mine's a Kermac forced air combo furnace. Wood stove on one side, oil burner on the other. I only use the oil side when it's not cold enough to justify having a fire, like today f'rinstance (~50 degrees)

Quote

I won't ever have natural gas again, if that's the only option I won't live in the house it's in.

Really? I've heard nothing but good things about natural gas, including the fact that it's currently at historic low prices. My brother heated with it in Ontario and his heat was cheap. He just moved to Sydney, NS, where NG is not available, and he's done nothing but growl about it. He's gonna be in for a shocker, heating his new 2000 square foot cape cod house with electricity in cold, wet, Sydney.

They've just made a big natural gas find about two miles down the road from my house, and are only waiting for prices to come up a bit to start producing. When they do, they'll need a pipeline, and that pipeline will probably have to come through my property (or at least near it, if they come down the other side of the road). If it does I'm hoping they'll hook my house up to it, just to give me one more option (wood, oil, electric, or gas - I could choose whichever is cheapest at the moment

)