Heat: propane, pellets, wood? (condo, how much, new house)
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We are building a house in chester and the builder has specified propane heat and hot water. We have used electric heat and hot water in our condo for the last ten years and both grew up with oil. Does anybody have experience with propane? How is the cost? Any other negatives?
Next question. We are also deciding between a fireplace and a pellet stove in the living room. We like the modularity and cost hedge associated with being able to burn either wood or pellets in a given year. Other than the increased up front cost, are there any negatives to using a pellet insert over a conventional pellet stove? Any incremental costs to the insert? Reduced efficiencies?
Oil or propane are the two main methods for heating houses. Electric is way too expensive and won't work quite as well. Others are more experienced with the pellet stoves, so I'll let them deal with that.
As far as pellet inserts go most will have a smaller internal hopper, some freestanding pellet stoves (like the one I have) can handle 80 lbs of pellets at a time. The other downside to the insert is obvious. You'll have to remove it when you want to burn wood.
What I would do is go with either oil or propane as the primary, put a woodburning insert with glass doors in the fireplace for both ambiance and efficency and have the pellet stove for backup.
The downside with using a woodburner as a heat sourch is the heat level will be uneven, some folks'll claim they can keep a nice hot fire going for hours. Sure, the house'll be 85 degrees untill the fire goes out.
Pellet stove can hold a much more even heat.
An alternative if you have the $$ is to piggyback a pellet burning furnace / boiler into the fossil fuel system. Then you could run pellets or fossil fuel as the primary and have the fireplace with woodburning insert as a backup.
Don't run just a fireplace, 99% of your heat will go straight up the chimmney.
Add in a small generator to run the fossil fuel unit & pellet stove when the power goes out and you'll be all set for the next Ice Storm from hell.
I have propane forced hotair, and a free-standing pellet stove.
Both require electricity. No juice, no heat....unless you have a gennie.
Wood burning stoves and fireplace inserts do not.
The propane is efficient, and priced accordingly, but surely not as much as oil.
I just purchased a skid of wood pellets for $300; that makes 3 skids.
That should be enought to get me thru 2 winters, with the use of the propane too.
I plan on moving the pellet stove to my 3 season room, and adding a wood burning stove to the main house.
I would use propane for the water heater and kitchen range. Use a wood stove in a central location for most of your sensible heat. Be certain it has a place to heat a water kettle or a soup pot. If you have access to stove wood or a wood lot put a stove insert into a fireplace and burn wood off your own lot. Have someone teach you how to safely fell and cut up trees.
FWIW – cutting wood in the fall or winter is best because the moisture is low. I suggest building a small plastic covered green house kit and using it to dry wood. I have seen such green houses dry wood in three weeks that would take and entire dry summer if left outside. Finally store your wood in a covered shed with two sides open. Only bring enough wood for one day’s fire into the house at any time to keep bug and critter infestation down.
For about $800 I would add a whole house humidifier to your gas furnace. It will make your breathing so much better in the winter....no more dry mouth & nose when you wake up.
Propane has about 95,000 BTU per gallon
Oil has about 140,000 BTU per gallon
This means that at the same price per gallon and same efficiency furnace Oil will be 32% cheaper than propane. However most condensing propane furnaces are around 95% efficient whereas most oil furnaces are around 85% efficient...the result is Oil being about 20% cheaper at the same price point.
Propane also tends to have a 3 month delay in price increases; meaning if oil spikes one month, propane prices will spike around 3 months later.
Propane also burns A LOT cleaner than Oil with little residue. Oil on the other hand has some particulate & acidic output. Obviously newer/better maintained furnaces of both types have significantly lower emissions than older/poorly maintained units.
In regards to safety- oil is essentially diesel fuel. It's fairly hard to ignite and is fairly safe to store. Propane on the other hand is highly explosive, follows things, and is heavier than air. It is VERY important that the lines from the propane tank into the home are buried below the frost line and periodically checked for leaks (due to the freeze/thaw cycles in the NE) to make sure the shifting ground hasn't caused a problem...which could result in a spectacular explosion.
would prefer #2 oil for (safety and convenience) for heat and electricity for cooking. I have a glass top stove I really like. When I want to grill something I use the charcoal grill outside even in winter.
As you are building a new house design it to have most of the windows on the south side with lots of free air circulation. You will be surprised just how much direct solar heat is available on a sunny January day.
I'd go with oil for the central heat. Propane is more expensive.
And, I wouldn't use either a fireplace insert or a pellet stove. I'd use a regular woodstove (you can get one of course with nice windows on the front to see the fire). The stove would be excellent backup heating or even a primary source of heat if sized properly. It can save a lot of money if you find cheap or free firewood. There's frequently pellet shortages in the winter and the pellet stove requires electricity. Often to get any real heat out of a fireplace insert they have to use electric blowers. Neither is great IMHO so I'd go for a regular freestanding woodstove.
wood stoves are great, but they have far more pollution than pellet stoves - the cost of pellets is still way up there, but not as bad as last year - heating with oil or with pellets costs about the same at this time.
pellet stoves burn cleaner AND are much cleaner in general than wood stoves. Pellet stoves have very low particulate emissions; 50 times less than older, non-EPA certified wood stoves, and two to five times lower than more efficient, EPA-certified woodstoves. If you're looking for a new stove, pellet stoves can be a good option for those without a fireplace or chimney, because they can often be vented through a small hole in the wall, rather than a whole chimney.
con - You have to establish a reliable source of pellets. Last year, pellets were not available.
as others pointed out already, last year's ice storm knocked out electricity for two weeks (more in some places) and the pellet stove needs a generator if there is no electricity available.
You won't have that problem with a wood stove.
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