trying to decide all electric or use some propane

[stevenf]

I've looked at some of the sites on electric houses vs propane and depending on who is sponsoring the sites it seems to sway the pro's and con's. It seems it would be cheaper to use propane for central heat, cooking and hot water and electric for the rest although its hard to tell just how much cheaper and also the propane folks claim central heaters will last almost double the life of an electric heater.
In the beginning I had decided to use electric because I am more familiar with the installation than I am with the gas lines although its not that big of deal to run the propane lines and I do have enough experience to do it, I just wouldn't feel as comfortable safety wise. The insurance is cheaper if you use electric appliances and you don't have a 1,000 gallon bomb sitting next to the house.
What is everybody else doing out there and why?(heating oil and a boiler is not in the cards this is Texas we are talking about and in this neck of the woods its pretty much unheard of anymore)

 

[Jimbrown]

My house is 3000 sg ft 2 story with seperate upstairs and downstairs units. I use propane for heat and hot water. I would have gone with the stove but the wife prefers elec stoves. My elec bill is about $60 per month and my propane is less than that.I do not have a real handle on the propane as we have not been in the house for a whole year yet. I would definetly reccommend propane for heat and water. The propane heat is instant warm. My experience with elec heat is it just kinda blows warm and you do not get thet instant heat as you do from gas. I have a 500 galon propane tank and it came full with the house last October. I filled it this Sep and it took 175 gallons. I know I am using more than that now but I do not think a whole lot more. I also recommend buying your propane tank and not renting it. If you rent you have to buy from whoever you rented it from if you buy you can buy from whoever has the best price.

 

[btolle]

If propane wasn't cheaper I doubt that you would see all those propane tanks in the rural areas.

Where we live (Jasper, Texas) the electricity has been known to go out for as much as 11 hours in the last 6 years.

Due to the number of trees in this area when we have a storm power lines often get knocked down.

We have natural gas for heating, hot water, and cooking. There was a gas pipe in the living room (house built in 1946) so I hooked up an old fashioned "clay back" gas heater. If we ever have an ice storm we will have backup heating since the central heat won't work without electricity.

Something to think about.

Bill Tolle

 

[Freds]

We just had a BIG discussion on heating in the winter on a kennel list I'm on and I can honestly say... there was no clear winner. I've always been a forced air guy and it's easy to add a humidifier to a gas or propane furnace, something that makes the heat seem warmer and is better for your house overall, but a few people had me thinking twice about electric heat pumps. You can heat AND cool with the same unit and they sound very efficient if your temps don't run to extremes. Even then, they sound like they are more efficient than they were twenty years ago.
I know someone that has what he calls "rural electric" and I'm not sure I understand how it works, but it's cheaper than regular electric and he has two meters in case he has to switch over. I guess they can shut you off for a few hours at a time, but he said it's never been a bother. His whole house is electric, is "good sized" with lots of glass and high ceilings, two stories with no basement (I'm bad with square footage but I'd guess at least 2000) and he said his highest bill in the winter is $300. That's everything and he's on a well, so it's his only utility bill other than phone. He has electric baseboard heat.
I personally don't think I could cook unless I see a flame under the pot.

 

[SPIKER]

uphere it is gas, propane or wood with the rareity being heat pump or all elec. cold winters mean you need to HEAT not warm things. elec is OK maybe for down there but when it gets really cold the wattage used is not a good $ per btu of heat put out for elec only.. some friend use wood & elec heat combos which while not all that popular it is a thought. others don't want hasselz of wood but I kind of like the smell, grew up around it so maybe that is why? now I have propane in one house and gas in 2 others, none with elec. one does have an elec stove and I HATE it. burns stuff or takes forever to heat up... or worse burns the outside of the pies and leaves the insides under cooked as evidinced by thanksgiving pumpkin pies we made... some people say forced air blows dust around, well that is why they have filters in there and that REMOVES the dust, the dust is dry skin flakes (or at least 95% of indoor dust is per resurch) the forced air sucks and removes much of this, that is in the air naturally regardless of heat type.

next home being built is going to be combo hot water & wood stove. not sure if I'll install forced air propane or not but I also may think about cent air, in that case the forced air heat will be propane, and still use primary heating coil of hot water with propane backup, and the air will be there too! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Mark M

 

[sherpa]

I live back in the Pisgah National Forest in NC. The power goes off at least 6 times a year for several hours. It 10 miles dirt road to get here and we are always last to get power. I heat with wood and I have a Propane Heat PAC. Dont use much AC. Cook with gas, dryer is gas and water heater is Elect. Propane is about $200 per year, elect is $700 year. A backup heat is important to me and thats why I have propane and wood.
Sherpa

 

[GerardC]

Get both hookups if you can.
We chose to go propane except for the stove (wife wanted a flat top. Gas line is there if we want to switch).
We have a 500 gallon buried tank (nice curb appeal) that gets filled 3-4 times per year. We've got the option of both hookups throughout the house (stove, drier, hot water tank) and are happy with our decision to go propane. Our electric is budgeted at $170.00/mo /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. I'd hate to see it if we were running on all electric!
The forced air isn't all that bad. It can be a little dusty, oh well. Radiant heat is the best in my opinion.
What is nice about the forced air is that in the spring of 2003 we had central air installed. All the duct work is already there which saves a ton of money on installation. And wow, what a difference in the cooling of the whole house as compared to the window units. Hope this helps. Gerard

 

[chim]

When we built back in 89, I wanted natural gas, but the line doesn't come this far out of town. Settled on propane. The furnace is one of the "condensing" or high efficiency models. Our chimney is a 2" schedule 40 PVC pipe through the basement wall. The furnace has a secondary heat exchanger, and removes enough heat from the combustion that the PVC only gets warm.

Our other house was 1,500SF and it had the older style furnace that was installed in 1972. Nearly half the heat went up the chimney. The furnace was rated at 100,000BTU's. Our current house is 2,700SF, and is easily kept comfy with a 100,000BTU high efficiency furnace.

Our water heater is gas, but the cooking is done with electricity. There's an LP-powered generator in an enclosure out back that will run all essential loads when the power lines go down.

Like Striker says, we heat here too. There is usually that one blue-cold windy week each Winter when the mercury dips below 0°F at night.....................chim

 

[sherpa]

I would get the highest efficiency rated unit there is on the market with whatever you go with.

Sherpa

 

[Egon]

Consider the high efficiency propane furnace and water heater. Add in a generator for power outages and all is well. In a power outage the generator does not have to run constantly, only when heat is required. A few coleman lamps and a coleman stove and your all set. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif