Propane or Electric Central Heat?

[Monark]

2700 sq ft house built in 1991. 6" walls, double pane windows, traditional insulation. Gas cook top, water heater, clothes dryer, & two HVAC furnaces. 500 gallon propane tank topped off twice per year. Burn around 600 - 700 gallons a year. I run an electric oil filled radiator in the living area to save propane. Thermostat is never warmer than 68. Usually 65-66. Propane has run me $2.25- $ 2.45 in the last few years if I top off March - September.

[double bogey]

[QUOTE=Mike D;14664206]Our heat strips have never kicked on in our house, even when the temps were in the 20° range (at least as far as I can tell).

The foam insulation makes a huge difference.

Just make sure your HVAC guy knows how calculate and properly install a system in a foam house

Not being able to tell is how it should work. It will be the 2nd stg (3rd if the ht.pump is 2 stg) on the thermostat and it is totally automatic.

[double bogey]

A system is designed for the air conditioning load, you just get what the heat pump puts out.
You graph the data on the heat load for various outdoor temperatures, and you graph the heat pump capacities at various outdoor temps, and you set your changeover temperature a bit higher than where the lines in the graph cross.

Most contractors do not install a changeover stat, so anytime your setpoint is 1° or more above the room temp, your heat strips will be running, negating the efficiency of the heat pump.
Most high efficiency heat pumps today come with this capability built in with an outdoor sensor installed, and the changeover temp is set in the thermostat programming. You still need to compare the graphs to get an accurate setpoint.

[Arrowsmith]

2700 sq ft house built in 1991. 6" walls, double pane windows, traditional insulation. Gas cook top, water heater, clothes dryer, & two HVAC furnaces. 500 gallon propane tank topped off twice per year. Burn around 600 - 700 gallons a year. I run an electric oil filled radiator in the living area to save propane. Thermostat is never warmer than 68. Usually 65-66. Propane has run me $2.25- $ 2.45 in the last few years if I top off March - September.

That is very similar to our place.

We have 1560 sq ft living space and 1560 sq ft shop. Fiberglass batt insulation in the walls and R50 blown in above the ceilings.

We have a propane tankless water heater (199,000) BTU, a Carrier two stage high efficiency propane furnace, a Thor propane kitchen range. In the shop we have a Mr. Heater Big Maxx 100,000 BTU ceiling mounted heater. We Heep the shop at about 50-55 degrees. We also use a electric radiator heater to supplement in the living room. We keep the house thermostat at 66 at night. We will bump it to 70 during the day depending on temperature. We have had one night so far at 7 below zero and several nights in the single digits above zero.

We have a 500 gallon propane tank. This is our first winter in the house, but so far I have been surprised and pleased with our propane consumption. Fortunately the propane cost is less here in Iowa than Texas. We contracted for 500 gallons at the summer pre buy price which was $1.19 a gallon. Our supplier topped off our tank (80% full) in early December. We are at 65 to 70 percent full as of today.

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[DallasCoon12]

I own and operate a plumbing company in kerrville. Who’s doing your plumbing?

[acearrow]

We have a 2200 sq ft home with propane heat, tankless water heater, and cook top. The past two winters I have had propane bills from 300-500 each month(October-February). I think two years ago I had to buy 300 gallons in January which was 600. Sure wish I has the natural gas heat system that was in my old home. This year I put out a couple of radiant heaters in living and bed room. Have not had to fill the propane tank yet. Electric bill did go up but maybe only 50-70 more than last winter. I usually keep heaters set at 72 but turn down bedroom one to 66 during day when at work.

[huntindude]

We have and love our propane heat. Also use propane for tankless water heater and stove. We were filling our 250 gallon tank about once a year but now we are on the route so the propane guy stops by every few months and tops it off


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[double bogey]

Propane with an 80% furnace and electric strip heating are pretty much neck and neck as far as costs go.

See posts 39 and 40 for when you are ready to upgrade your heat.

[Roger]

We went with propane for our hvac, h2o heater, and fireplace in our new home. Stove/oven is electric. I have log walls and everything above the walls is spray foam on roof deck. 2300 sq ft. Living ceiling is 25'. Downstairs rooms all vaulted and two rooms upstairs . I have a 96% efficiency direct vent furnace. Went direct vent on our fireplace to avoid any moisture production due to the foam insulation. My wife has that thing on a lot. Water heater is also high efficiency, direct vent Rinnai tankless system. Spent right at $500 on propane for 2019. We love the propane fireplace and really like the feel of propane central heat.

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[Killer]

You can do a heat pump with a propane emergency heat instead of the electric heat strips.

This is good ideal especially if you’re going to have propane anyway. An electric heat pump will heat cheaper than propane up until the outside temp gets around 38 to 37 degrees. If your backup heat is propane you will be covered for those few days or weeks when the temp gets real cold outside.

[tpack]

Very interested in this... Slab was poured today. Did alot of research and going with foam and all electric HVAC and hot water heaters. Propane for cooktop and fireplace..... Hope it's the right decision

This is almost what we have in our home(no foam) . We built in 2017, 2258 sq. ft. I am very happy with our electric bill for having high ceilings(12 ft.) in all but the bedrooms.

[Hart8]

Very interested in this... Slab was poured today. Did alot of research and going with foam and all electric HVAC and hot water heaters. Propane for cooktop and fireplace..... Hope it's the right decision

I like that combination.A friend of mine went propane heat 2 years ago when he built his house.Burned so much he called out somebody to see if he had a leak.Inspection came back good.The inspector told him,"this ****'s expensive,and you're gonna burn a lot of it"!

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[forced-2-work]

I own and operate a plumbing company in kerrville. Who’s doing your plumbing?

I don't know yet. We are working on blueprints and plans at the moment. Then we will work towards finalizing all our decisions. I can tell you who our contractor is (carpenter brand llc) , but I do not know who they use to sub out the plumbing or HVAC work to.

[forced-2-work]

So overall the consensus I am getting are 2 things, 1st choose the option that works best for what my wife and I prefer to have, and 2nd some people burn through propane a lot more than others do. Whether it be electric or propane there are little ways to help save $$ over all. Using space heaters, good HVAC system with foam insulation, etc. Etc. Everyone has given great advise and input and I appreciated it all. Now my wife and I just need to sit down and make a decisionon on it.

[double bogey]

So overall the consensus I am getting are 2 things, 1st choose the option that works best for what my wife and I prefer to have, and 2nd some people burn through propane a lot more than others do. Whether it be electric or propane there are little ways to help save $$ over all. Using space heaters, good HVAC system with foam insulation, etc. Etc. Everyone has given great advise and input and I appreciated it all. Now my wife and I just need to sit down and make a decisionon on it.

Space heaters. They are good for area heat, so the rest of the house doesn't have to be heated up. But remember, any type of resistance (heat strips) or infra red (heat lamps) or any other electric heater you plug in, will only get you 3.14 btu for every watt put in. That is a physics thing. no way around it. For electricly generated heat, the heat pump is the most efficient way to go.

I set my father in law up several years ago with a nice 16 seer heat pump in the new house he built. Efficient duct system, nice air cleaner, flow hood balanced the air to each room. When we go see him in the winter time, he is running 2 of those heaters the quakers marketed. cant convince him the heat pump is more efficient. He uses it to make the room he is in warmer.