What do you you heat with?? NF

[TJQ]

For a number of reason, lol.. well one big one, I've decided to stop heating my office and house with wood. Right now I have an oil furnace backup, the cost of which is why i went to wood in the first place.

 

I've been hearing good things about propane. Does anyone have any insight into the different methods of heating and cost. I gotta change everything over this summer.

[DRIFTER_016]

TJ

My place is heated with a forced air propane furnace.

Works no different than any natural gas furnace really.

I spend in the neighbourhood of $2,000-$2,500 a year on fuel.

But you have to remember where I live.

Furnace starts running in September and by May our winter is done.

Also my place is a trailer so take that into consideration. The insulation is not as good as a real home either.

This winter may cost less as I have just finished renovating the addition. The insulation was terrible and in places in the roof was only about R7. It's R40 now and a lot warmer.

 

Best place for the tank is in a dip or beside a hump or hilly area.

The snow will collect and help insulate the tank if you get some frigid temps.

Mine is beside the house at the bottom of a short slope. It doesn't take long to get covered and I have never had a cold weather flow problem.

[NAW]

I heat with Oil and a 15 year old "High Efficiency" furnace.

 

I would hate to see what a low efficiency furnace could do to my pocket book!!

 

$400 a month for Jan.

 

I bought a few high efficiency electric heaters. Gunna see if I can find a balance the will save some money, some how.

 

But I have a feeling that I am going to have to install either a natural gas, or propane tank out side, and up\grade my furnace.

[TJQ]

I heat with Oil and a 15 year old "High Efficiency" furnace.

 

I would hate to see what a low efficiency furnace could do to my pocket book!!

 

Yup.. I hear ya... im heating 2 buildings, which is why we went to wood, but im fed up with it. Its looking like propane may be the answer.

[Sinker]

I heat with wood mostly, with radiant electric as back up.

 

What is it you don't like about wood?

 

I enjoy the work that goes with it. I do a little here and there, just to keep myself busy and away from the kids lol.

 

It is a lot of work, and its not cheaper once you factor in your time/effort, but if you enjoy it like I do, Its the way to go. I also cut my wood from my property, so that helps a lot with the cost. The mess gets a little tiring, but its not that bad.

 

S.

[TJQ]

I heat with wood mostly, with radiant electric as back up.

 

What is it you don't like about wood?

 

I enjoy the work that goes with it. I do a little here and there, just to keep myself busy and away from the kids lol.

 

It is a lot of work, and its not cheaper once you factor in your time/effort, but if you enjoy it like I do, Its the way to go. I also cut my wood from my property, so that helps a lot with the cost. The mess gets a little tiring, but its not that bad.

 

S.

 

For 35 years ive been cutting and splitting for the house, office and now for the camp.. ive bought a bit. To be honest we had a fire in our office from a chimney that should have been replaced. Same thing in the house.. the chimney is getting older and needs fixing up this summer as well.. I guess im just tired of it.. ill also say though that theres nothing like a nice fire... Ive just had enough.. and the oil furnaces are just brutal on the pocket book here.

[Sinker]

I would really miss it if I didn't have a fire of some sort, but i hear ya, its a lot of work. Been burning wood as long as you, but I'm not giving in yet. Gas/oil, and even propane puts a dent in the pocket book. I'd rather do the work!

 

S.

[chessy]

I have radiant floor heat ,its heated with natural gas my house is small 1100 square feet . it also heats my hotwater and dryer and cooking stove gas bill 156 for last month.

[aplumma]

Propane all the way here. I have a 500 gallon buried tank that is filled on a contract. They send me a quote in the summer for $1.99 this year per gallon and I bought 1000 gallons. If I don't use it they will send me a check or just keep it on the account for next year. The conversion btu is 96,000 btu per gallon of gas. A Water heater is 45,000 btu's or 1/2 gallon per hour. The furnace are usually 1 gal per hour. The 92% efficentcy units are vented through PVC pipe and will eliminate any chance of chimney fires in the future. You can also check into a wood stove shaped gas fire unit that burns 30,000 BTU per hour that is on a thermostat and does not need to be vented. If you need any other info call or P.M. me.

 

Art

[ecmilley]

my house is a open concept of about 1300 sq ft with 2nd floor loft, i used to heat with a propane wall mount and it would consume up to $600 a month on cold months i switched to a pellet stove bit of a pia to fill and store pellets, but heats the house great (if a little unevenly) and is between 5 and 10 bux a day while it's on.

now if your trying to heat multiple units in the same vicinity try looking into a pellet or corn boiler system frien of mine is heating his house on a boiler system and he uses half the pellets i do and the house is warm and cozy

[kickingfrog]

A wise man once said: A Canuck should always take home heating advice from someone living south of the Mason-Dixon line with caution.

 

No useful advice from me, just pot shots at my friend to the south.

Edited February 4, 2013 by kickingfrog

[TJQ]

A wise man ounce said: A Canuck should always take home heating advice from someone living south of the Mason-Dixon line with caution.

 

No useful advice from me, just pot shots at my friend to the south.

 

Just as good...

[kickingfrog]

Just as good...

I've been told I have a lot of hot air.

[lew]

I removed my oil furnace back in April and had a new propane furnace installed and couldn't be happier with it. It's 1/2 the size of the oil and runs so quiet I can hardly hear it running even from inside the furnace room. It does an excellent job of heating the house and the temperature remains constant all the time with very little fluctuation.

 

I've also got a wood burning air-tight downstairs and use it alot because when it's burning, the gas furnace never comes on, even on the coldest days except thru the night when the fire dies down. Right now, the entire house is around 75F and the furnace has been off since 6:00 AM.

 

My house is around 3100 sq. ft. of living space and very well insulated so it takes very little to keep it warm.

 

Hard to give an estimate of cost to heat though as the stove & hot water heater are also propane and the wood stove does 2/3 of the job.

 

I'd definetely recommend propane over oil though.

[mr blizzard]

Propane is good as many have mentioned, our house is heated with oil up here, we keep the thermastat at a whopping 60 f and the bills are still beating us up.

 

CHECK into the pellet boiler system as ecmilley mentioned. Our neighbour delivers pellets with a tank truck. U will use far fewer pellets. The info he gave us made it pretty interesting.

[aplumma]

A wise man ounce said: A Canuck should always take home heating advice from someone living south of the Mason-Dixon line with caution.

 

No useful advice from me, just pot shots at my friend to the south.

 

 

You are correct sir. It is why I didn't tell him how much he would save on the conversion. Once the initial outlay Propane is one of the best ways to heat for ease and convenience. You could also get rid of most of the heating issues by coming to the Dark side Southside Luke.

 

 

 

Art

[Nipfisher]

What about wood pellets T.J.? My parents have a big one in their basement and they love it. Just fill the hopper as needed.

[HTHM]

I heat a ~2400 square foot living space home with a combo of wood and oil. I usually burn 1.5 tanks of oil a year. About $1500 that includes domestic hot water and I have some very poor windows that are being replaced within the month. Mind you I keep the temp set around 60 - 63 degrees, so that helps as well.

[grt1]

i've got a wood stove downstairs that i use when the temp is above -10 to heat the house. i have a forced air oil furnace for the lower temp days and when we go away, i also have a zero clearance wood fireplace in the living room that we use occasionally. i also have electric baseboard units in alll the rooms but haven';t used them in 15 years,

 

the oil furnace cost are fairly heavy since we seem to be paying over 1.20 per litre of oil up here. 1/2 a tank is over 700 bucks and i use about that amount every month in the coldest part of the winter.

 

my neighbours have propane heat and they whine about their costs too, i guess we are never satisfied .

 

but i have to agree, carrying, splitting, then carrying again the wood gets old in a hurry and harder as i age.

[lookinforwalleye]

^{I would look into a air source heat pump! The technology is getting better all the time!}

[Terry]

if it was natural gas, I would say yes

but but if you take all facts into account, like btu per liter..oil should be the better way with the newer high efficiency furnaces

but

propane is nicer to the environment and is a more moist heat then oil

[dhickey]

I would go with oil.

I had an old farmhouse a few years ago with an older rebuilt oil funace it cost me 1800-2200 per year. Then we were red tegged becuase of new rules and regs. so be it.

I work in new home construction so I went and talked to the guys I delt with on a regular basis they came to my house took a look and decided that I should stick with oil but the problem was in venting the furnace....bla bla bla.

long and short of it I ended up buying a new high efficancey propane furnace.

My heating bil jumped to 1600 for 4 months???

It just so happens that the propane provider that insist on hooking up my tank didnt do it properly and when I insisted that I could smell propane outsidie near the tank I was told it was "in my head" bla bla regardless they settled for the cost of heating with oil on the same 4 months of the year before. Bla bla bla.

I found a new popane provider thanks to my hvac guys and the cost of heating was never even close to my oil bill for nevermind inflation 2900

 

But the furnace cycled far more often about once evey 15 mins when it was cold and windy

The old oil cycled about evey 20-25 mins.

 

My piont is go with oil if you can get a new furnace vented properly.

 

I would rather burn ellefant dung than propane...

 

Don.

[Jigger]

Surprised that theres only one post going with radiant heat. If I had to build a new house, that would be the first option.

[aplumma]

Radiant heat is very expensive to retrofit into a house. It also does not provide for humidification of the air. I installed a electric grid under the tile in my parents bathroom and while nice it is expensive to run but since it is one room and the rest of the room is over the top anyways they deserve it.

 

 

Art

[Raf]

I'm not impressed with propane. Don't like the 'kind' of heat it generates, very dry. Last winter I spent ~2000, this year it will be less due to lower cost.. not a very large place. I think it was about 44 c/liter last fill compared to mid 50s last year. My comparisons come against natural gas and electric though. Wifey however,grew up with wood and she alos prefers that compared to propane.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Raf