GalaxyBoy
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I had propane in my last house, which had an exterior packaged unit for heating and cooling. In 2009 we replaced the unit, which was on its last legs, with a high-efficiency heat pump that qualified for the tax credits. I work with HVAC engineers who taught me how to calculate the expected cost of heating with each fuel (sorry I don't have the exact methodology any more). I believe comparing a heat pump with propane was fairly complicated, but that the heat pump would beat it hands down. For the emergency heat, it was a matter of comparing electric resistance heat to propane. You have to convert the price per kilowatt-hour and the price per gallon of propane to dollars per BTU. Then, using the efficiency of each method, determine the price per BTU delivered to the house. (I believe electric resistance heat is 95%+, and propane was around 80%. Anyway, the bottom line was that electric resistance heat was cheaper than propane in my case, which surprised me.
But I went with the propane for backup heat simply because their was already a propane line running to the unit, and electric would have involved adding a new circuit or possibly an upgraded service, which would have been prohibitively expensive.
So, I used up all the tax credits and moved a year later. Go figure! But it felt good for that one year to see the tank get filled only twice in the season instead of once a month.
On another note, I concur with owning the tank. I inherited a rented tank with the purchase of the house and the agreement was such that it could only be terminated on January 1 of a given year. Would be kind of inconvenient to switch out a tank in freezing weather.
I also replaced the 15-year-old water heater with a tankless, which I loved. That was expensive, too, considering it couldn't be installed in the old location. OTOH, if it were new construction the choice of tankless would be a no-brainer, IMHO. Most of the savings, I found, were in the expected longevity of the unit instead of energy efficiency.
But I went with the propane for backup heat simply because their was already a propane line running to the unit, and electric would have involved adding a new circuit or possibly an upgraded service, which would have been prohibitively expensive.
So, I used up all the tax credits and moved a year later. Go figure! But it felt good for that one year to see the tank get filled only twice in the season instead of once a month.
On another note, I concur with owning the tank. I inherited a rented tank with the purchase of the house and the agreement was such that it could only be terminated on January 1 of a given year. Would be kind of inconvenient to switch out a tank in freezing weather.
I also replaced the 15-year-old water heater with a tankless, which I loved. That was expensive, too, considering it couldn't be installed in the old location. OTOH, if it were new construction the choice of tankless would be a no-brainer, IMHO. Most of the savings, I found, were in the expected longevity of the unit instead of energy efficiency.
