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With the prospect of some rolling power outages due to the extreme cold. I am thinking about doing this. My house is less than two years old and it is total electric which I hate. My heat pump runs constantly if the temperatures drop below 40 degrees and I have to use emergency heat, so it is expensive itself.
Is this feasible and what type of ballpark cost would it be? Also would it improve or decrease the value of the house? I have a spot for the propane tank and I could bring in the propane line into the garage where the water heater is. The electric range is on the opposite side of the water heater. The line could then go into the attic. I don't know if the actual heat pump would need replacing or not. Plus I like propane more than electric anyway.
Edit:
I am thinking the heating system would be the most expensive to do this on. Another option is to get a propane full house Generac system. At the same time I would run propane to and change out the water heater and electric range. These could be sold. Even if the Generac is not big enough to run the heating system I would have hot water and cooking capabilties.
Last edited by reubenray; 12-24-2022 at 05:03 AM..
The event that the continental US is experiencing right now is not common- so your thought process is a bit skewed. But having a fuel system that is generally not interrupted by weather events does have its advantages.
Feasible? Well, just about anything is “feasible”- it’s just a matter of how much money are you willing to throw at it(?). Cost will be highly speculative based on the material(s) used/approved , and the local labor market. As far as method/path- I would leave that to the plumber, based on the actual physical constraints of the house. Plus there’s all the incidentals- drywall, paint, trim, etc.
Your other option is probably the better for the “occasional” disruption of power due to weather events. And I’ll assume you are in NWA- so, your more common “weather event” is probably tornados- in the spring.
Another option would be to install ventless portable propane heaters. Mr. Heater is a popular brand that comes in a variety of sizes. They have some that have a slot for a small propane canister and larger models that can be floor or wall mounted directly to a propane line or to a propane tank. https://www.mrheater.com/
The event that the continental US is experiencing right now is not common- so your thought process is a bit skewed. But having a fuel system that is generally not interrupted by weather events does have its advantages.
Feasible? Well, just about anything is “feasible”- it’s just a matter of how much money are you willing to throw at it(?). Cost will be highly speculative based on the material(s) used/approved , and the local labor market. As far as method/path- I would leave that to the plumber, based on the actual physical constraints of the house. Plus there’s all the incidentals- drywall, paint, trim, etc.
Your other option is probably the better for the “occasional” disruption of power due to weather events. And I’ll assume you are in NWA- so, your more common “weather event” is probably tornados- in the spring.
I have been thinking about this since moving into the house two years ago. The heat pump/emh system sucks and runs constantly. My wife likes cooking over gas more instead of electric and I have always had gas/propane water heaters. They recover quicker than electric (IMHO). I already have a decent size gas generator to use for the basics if my power is out.
If the propane line is run exposed in the garage until it goes into the attic there would be very little drywall to be done. Plus I know how to do it. At the least I could swap out the water heater and electric range. This way I could have hot water and cooking capabilities if the power goes off.
Last edited by reubenray; 12-24-2022 at 07:16 AM..
Another option would be to install ventless portable propane heaters. Mr. Heater is a popular brand that comes in a variety of sizes. They have some that have a slot for a small propane canister and larger models that can be floor or wall mounted directly to a propane line or to a propane tank. https://www.mrheater.com/
After seeing how the crappy heat pump/emh system worked I installed a ventless propane fireplace last year. This provides heat to about 70% of the house.
After seeing how the crappy heat pump/emh system worked I installed a ventless propane fireplace last year. This provides heat to about 70% of the house.
Our home is natural gas (water heater, stove, and central heat). If natural gas was as cheap as it once was we would have a natural gas fireplace for additional heat. Our clothes dryer location had both electric and natural gas connections. We already had a good nearly new electric dryer so we just needed to change the cord to match the plug. When we changed our central unit we had the option of heat pump with natural gas backup but decided to stick with natural gas. We do have an infrared space heater in the living room just to take the chill out and allow the central heat to run less frequently. https://www.twinstarhome.com/portabl...tz-heater-oak/
This is the one we went with. It rolls on casters, has a remote control with digital thermostat, easy to clean screen air filter, and when the cold season is over we put it back in the box and store it in a closet.
This is the one we went with. It rolls on casters, has a remote control with digital thermostat, easy to clean screen air filter, and when the cold season is over we put it back in the box and store it in a closet.
One big caveat...no power, no heat.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-24-2022 at 04:56 PM..
I don’t know what your electric rates are but where I live in Montana propane and electric heat are dueling dollar suckers. We have a propane fireplace, garage heater and cooking stove and fan driven EBB as the ‘primary’ heat source and electric water heater. We cannot get NG here.
We do have a pretty large pellet stove in the basement family room that supply’s quite a bit of our required heating load, but it only does so much. We had EBB going full tilt while it was -30/-35 for the past 4-5 days, lol.
You should sit down and do the math for your area. Our electric rates are more stable than propane, and I have a pretty advantageous net solar agreement. We may heavy up our solar production to carry a big net credit which we could then draw down in the winter. The cost to retrofit a ducted central heating might on par with installing more solar capacity. So I may keep EBB. Plus replacing an EBB is stupid cheap, and very little maintenance.
I know your system is different, but I’d suggest doing the math to see which way to go. I’ve lived with propane for several decades and the price swing simply drive me nuts.
If you live in the south a heat pump will be far more efficient than propane. I'd be hesitant to sleep with an unvented propane heater but I have a Mr heater I use to heat my unfinished basement if I'm working down there. It gives me peace of mind I could bring it upstairs during a power outage. A more effective solution is a vented propane heater in a family room you can close off and camp out in.
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