Propane use during a full twelve month period

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Rich Cape Cod
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Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by Rich Cape Cod »

From time to time the subject of how well propane works for home heating comes up. I converted from oil hot water to an all propane home (heating, water, cooking, gas fireplace, emergency generator) in August 2012. Here are some numbers for an entire years use:

March 2013~March 2014
677 total gallons of propane used
1.85 gallons per day, on average
$1,883 dollars cost (per gallon cost ranged from a low of $2.22 to a high of $3.36)

Home size is about 2,000 sq. ft., located on Cape Cod. During the winter (Nov thru much of May) home is empty and kept at around 55 degrees.

I tried to compare the information above to the period when I used both oil and propane but for various reasons (spent more time in the winter on the Cape for one thing) it was an apples to oranges sort of comparison so I gave up on it.

Anyway thought you folks might find this interesting.

Rich
Rich Cape Cod/AZ
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Rich Cape Cod
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by Rich Cape Cod »

OK, took a stab at coming up with the oil/propane combined use figures. Here they are:

Oil
April 2011~April 2012
445 total gallons of oil used
1.3 gallons per day, on average
$1,740 dollars cost (per gallon cost ranged from a low of $3.75 to a high of $4.11)

Propane
Feb 2011~Feb 2012
209 total gallons of propane used
Under 1 gallon per day, on average
$377 dollars cost (per gallon cost ranged from a low of $2.49 to a high of $2.61)

Rich
Rich Cape Cod/AZ
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by Professor Emeritus »

Propane is about 91,000 BTUS gallon Fuel oil is about 139,000 BTus gallon

At current prices they ahve about the same cost per BTU

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=8&t=5
NHRATA01
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by NHRATA01 »

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jimb_fromATL
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by jimb_fromATL »

You'd need a better idea of how much time you were heating it to living temperature and how much you occupied it and used gas for cooking, etc, and how much the outside temperature varied during the same time periods, but here's a way to think about it:
  • In 2011-2012 you used 209 gallons of propane for stuff other than heating.

    In 2013-2014 you used 677 gallons of propane for everything including heating.

    If you really used the same amount of gas for non-heating in 2013-14, then you would have used 677 - 209 = 468 gallons of the propane for heating.

    There's 139,000 BTUs of heat in a gallon of fuel oil and 91,000 in a gallon of propane. So it would take about 468 x 91/139 = 306 gallons of oil to produce the same heat.
If you replaced a very old furnace, chances are the new one is considerably more efficient in its use of fuel. For example if your old oil furnace was 70% efficiency, you might be getting 97,300 BTUs of heat per gallon used. If your new gas furnace is 90% efficiency, you might be getting 81,900 BTUs of heat per gallon used.

So you might actually need 468 x 81900/97300 = 394 gallons of oil to produce the same useable heat with the old furnace compared to the new one.

jimb
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Rich Cape Cod
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by Rich Cape Cod »

We found a couple of other advantages to propane over home heating oil:

1-We removed our rather old single wall oil tank, which we would have had to replace (new units are double walled and much better than the old style)

2-The propane heating unit that replaced our oil burner was tiny in comparison, about the size of a desk-top computer

3-No more oil smell in the basement

At any rate we're pleased with the result.

Rich
Rich Cape Cod/AZ
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jimb_fromATL
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by jimb_fromATL »

Rich Cape Cod wrote:We found a couple of other advantages to propane over home heating oil:

1-We removed our rather old single wall oil tank, which we would have had to replace (new units are double walled and much better than the old style)

2-The propane heating unit that replaced our oil burner was tiny in comparison, about the size of a desk-top computer

3-No more oil smell in the basement

At any rate we're pleased with the result.

Rich
I agree that it was a good idea to replace the old furnace with a modern propane unit, especially at today's fuel prices. Plus you obviously have a furnace with a greatly improved efficiency rating.

The price per BTU is already about the same on propane as for fuel oil, and the law of supply and demand will eventually cause natural gas to cost about the same too ... either with natural gas going up or fuel oil going down or a little of both.

We have an oil furnace at a second home in NC, and it is a pain. Oil furnaces are more complicated and require more routine maintenance, and-except for perhaps the bigger "go-boom and blow-up-the-house factor""is more dependable. Another factor emerging in older oil-tanks in addition to leaks is that there's typically a build-up of sludge in the bottom of the tank that will eventually cause problems with the furnace and which may require replacing the tank anyway.

Another problem we realized was that we had "keep-filled" service. When fuel oil was well over $4 per gallon, this meant we had in the range $1000 to $1200 of fuel oil there for the taking when the home is unoccupied because the outside tank is isolated out of view of the few neighbors even when they’re there. Theft of fuel oil was becoming a big problem in the area, and we're lucky it didn't happen to us. Even worse might be a leak -- or some thief f taking what they want and letting the rest run out on the ground -- that not only would cost the value of the oil, but would contaminate the ground and cause a huge clean-up cost. So now we pay more per gallon in smaller quantities of 50 - 75 gallons when we know we're going to be there to use most of it.

While the oil furnace ran for many years with no problems, there was one time when it did fail to ignite and the fail-safe systems kept it from working. Luckily it wasn't cold enough to cause any damage to plumbing, etc. that time But the same might happen to a propane system or natural gas system, especially if it has a standing pilot instead of electric ignition.

As for "freeze prevention"

When fuel oil prices went sky-high – well over -$4 per gallon a few years ago-- we started using more “zone” heating using radiator-type oil filled electric space heaters to keep the rooms where we really live warmer, and run the main thermostat for the central furnace at no more than about 55 at night and 60 in the daytime. A 1500 watt heater putting out 4500+ BTUs can keep a single fairly small room with 9 ft ceilings reasonably livable even with the furnace off in an old house with relatively poor insulation by today's standards.

Now I use the three radiator-type oil-filled heaters for freeze-proofing when the house is unoccupied. One in the single bathroom, one in the kitchen, and one in the utility room near the water heater. The heaters have “freeze-proof” low settings specifically designed to keep it above freezing, but I go a step further and use thermostatic plug-in receptacles of the type used to turn heat tapes or the like on and off in unattended locations. These turn the electricity on when it goes below about 40 degrees, and off when goes back above it. That way there’s double protection to keep the heaters from running when not needed. I use two 100 watt incandescent bulbs on a thermostat receptacle to keep the pump house warm enough. (One is enough -- one for backup).

The oil-filled heaters use the silicon oil for mass, not for fuel. And since they’re radiators that don’t use fan motors, there are no moving parts to fail and they don’t get hot enough to be a fire hazard like a space heater with a blower could do if the blower were to stop or be blocked. According to some RF remote thermometers with high/low recording, in the last 15+ years it has never gotten below freezing inside the house or pump house even during this year’s several decades record low in the single digits.

In our case, if the fuel tank does have to be replaced, I'll probably convert to natural gas -- now that there is a county system that goes by on the main road. The cost of the tank will go a long way toward paying for a gas furnace (or maybe a heat pump).

jimb
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Re: Propane use during a full twelve month period

Post by Valuethinker »

jimb_fromATL wrote:
In our case, if the fuel tank does have to be replaced, I'll probably convert to natural gas -- now that there is a county system that goes by on the main road. The cost of the tank will go a long way toward paying for a gas furnace (or maybe a heat pump).

jimb
Check your numbers. I cannot check from here (remote location) but my sense is per unit heat, natural gas in the USA is c. 25-30% of the cost of oil? In addition, when you switch to gas you will move to a 90% efficient furnace and your oil furnace is probably c. 70% efficient (the best ones are in the low 80s).

It might pay to do this now. In addition:

- will increase resale value (how much I don't know, but it will, because it lowers operating costs of house) - a good bet is you'll get at least half the cost of the switch back in value on the house (I could do a Net Present Value calculation, in fact I would in your shoes, but that requires a little bit of familiarity with the technique + with MS Excel and forecasts of fuel oil and natural gas price inflation)
- it will solve any fuel oil theft problem
- it removes future risk of contamination which could be very expensive
- it would reduce US oil consumption. We can argue about this (it's *gasoline* and *diesel* consumption and specifically imports that creates an energy system security risk) but I would argue reducing your nation's oil consumption is a genuinely patriotic thing to do (this is very clear if your country produces little or no oil, but it is at least somewhat true even in a major oil producing country like the USA). Even if you don't do it, it's a qualitative factor to reflect on. It would also have environmental benefits but I don't wish to go too far off topic here
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