Home Building Questions - Propane - All electric - Fireplace

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

We are getting close to building a house in a semi-rural area. Feels like the country but close to town. The area has water, electric, and internet. But no natural gas or sewer. We are currently in an all electric house trailer on the property, temporarily until we get the house built.

The questions this time revolve around not being able to decide whether we should go all electric or get a propane tank. If going with propane, what all should we use it for. We don't typically have many electrical interruptions except for the occasional tornado.... Winters are not cold cold, nights typically hover around the freezing mark. Just a little under or over. We don't get a lot of days where the high stays below freezing. We get 3-4 really cold snaps per winter usually. Just a few days where it stays below freezing. Some winters we get 2-3 snow events and some winters none. If we did get propane I would prefer a buried tank but they are not exactly cheap. I don't think the actual propane is all that cheap either. Not sure if it will save money compared to electric or cost more. I'm beginning to think that I don't really want to deal with propane at all but I don't want to take it off the table if it's the better way to go.

We are building in a fireplace. Like a lot of people we don't have a lot of margin at this point in our lives, so I don't think a traditional wood burning fireplace would get used much. We are gone a lot or otherwise just don't stay home all day to make use of a fire that takes a long time to build or burn out. Not to mention we wouldn't be able to harvest our own wood. So I either want to put in gas logs or a pellet insert. Either one I would like for heat and to be able to see the fire.

Water heating is another question. The houses I have lived in with gas water heaters I never had an issue running out of hot water, I have run out many times with the electric ones. We are building a double shower in the master so I know we will use more hot water than usual. What is the solution?

I have never cooked on gas so at this point that's moot. Electric either way.

Heating furnace... The gas furnaces I have had in the past have been awesome. However, the electric one that is in our 10 year old trailer house has done a phenomenal job. Even in the cold snap just before Christmas, where nights got down to zero, it stayed 70 degrees all night. I am not scared of electric heat any more. I have heard of electric units with propane emergency strips. I'm curious if that is worth checking into. Also, I think a pellet insert in the fireplace providing additional heat would make me even less scared of electric heat.

I do think I'm going to have the house wired for a generator. Even if we don't get the automatic whole house generator, we would still be able to plug in a decent size one to run the pellet stove, refrigerators, freezers, etc. Then there's the gasoline vs propane question there too... So many decisions.

 

[5030]

Fireplaces are in general, net heat loosers, they look nice but the heat goes up the flue. I'd never have one. I much prefer bio mass or chunk wood in a sealed (outside combustion air) over any fireplace.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Fireplaces are in general, net heat loosers, they look nice but the heat goes up the flue. I'd never have one. I much prefer bio mass or chunk wood in a sealed (outside combustion air) over any fireplace.

The pellet insert works like you describe. It draws combustion air in from outside. It acts like a sealed unit. Gas logs can be ventless accomplishing the same thing.

 

[5030]

Problem is, gas keeps increasing in cost. I'll stick with my pellet and free corn mix. Only propane here. No NG.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Its nice to have backups... Electricity and propane will only get more expensive hard to predict which will get worse they tax Co2 emission hard right now as a result lots of people will switch to electric plus the electric vehicle, I expect the electricity to increase a bunch as well... although I don't think the additional cost of a propane tank and lines would be justifiable unless you go all out with it, cooking stove, hot water, dryer and heating.

 

[EddieWalker]

When I built my house, I went all electric. In my opinion, that was a mistake. Heating with electric is the most expensive way to heat a house that there is. My electric bill was so bad in winter that I would use a space heater to just heat the room I was in instead of heating the whole house. Then I lost power for 5 days during an ice storm. I had a small generator, so I had enough power for lights, a space heater, and the TV, but that was about it. I showered at other peoples homes, I ate cold food, or went to town to eat. It was horrible.

After that I bought a wood stove. That might of been one of my smarter decisions. It's made winter and the loss of power sort of fun instead of a nightmare. We heat the entire house with it, and when we've lost power, we heat water on top of it. It does require having a good supply of firewood, but it's so efficient that the wood lasts a long time. I would look into what a cord or two would cost to have delivered when deciding to get a wood stove or not.

I'm currently adding on and remodeling my house. I built it in 2005 on a limited budget with very little time to get it done. Sine then, I've had a change of thinking on what I want, and where I want it. Along the process of changing everything, I'm adding natural gas. I want to get away from electricity as much as possible. I will use it for the stove, the water heater, my BBQ and a big back up generator somewhere in the future.

Electricity is only going to get more expensive. Nobody seems to be doing anything to make it more reliable, and in my opinion, those in charge are doing things that make it less reliable. I'm not ready to consider solar just yet, but my wife keeps telling me that I need to rethink that. I wouldn't be surprised if she's right, and I'm working on adding solar panels to my roof.

In your case, I think that having the house plumbed for propane would be very cost effective when building the house. Even if you don't install the tank right away, you could easily do it in the future. But given the cost of electricity, and the unpredictability of the power grid, I think that getting the tank right away makes a lot of sense.

 

[thclimer]

What are you going to be using for air conditioning as I would thinking it maybe a larger portion of your utility bill? I've hear that some of the new mini-split AC units can also provide heat and are quite efficient even down to much lower temperatures than when they first came out many years ago.

Around here if you have a buried propane tank you own it, if its above ground you rent it.

 

[Hughman]

Couple of years ago we ripped out our wood burning fireplace insert and replaced it with a free standing cast iron pellet stove. No regrets. The open wood burning fireplace only seemed good at filling the house with smoke and not much heat. The pellet stove cranks out the heat with the push of a button.

 

[nybirdman]

I would go to a propane unit that doesn't require electricity to provide heat;it will be your back-up.Pellet stoves require some-one to clean and feed them(40 lb.bags) and store the pellets.

 

[5030]

I would go to a propane unit that doesn't require electricity to provide heat;it will be your back-up.Pellet stoves require some-one to clean and feed them(40 lb.bags) and store the pellets.

I mix mine 50-50 with free corn. You have to clean them, no big deal and I keep all my pellets and corn in the barn anyway. Cleaning is about a 10 minute job with a good shop vac and drywall bag. I keep 6 plastic trash cans by the deck. 3 with pellets, 3 with corn.